Occupational accidents by biological risk in clinical laboratory workers. Yopal, Colombia.

Abstract

Clinical laboratory workers are at permanent risk of suffering an occupational accident due to exposure to biohazard. These accidents may cause severe diseases, such as HIV, HBV or HCV. To describe the behavior of accidents due to occupational exposure to biohazard agents, and the characteristics of reports of occupational accidents in clinical laboratories in Yopal, Colombia. Observational descriptive study with exploratory component and retrospective analysis of incident report forms of presumed occupational accidents. For the period between January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018, an occupational accident percentage of 24.6 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 16.7-32.5) was estimated, and an underreporting percentage of 39.3 (95% CI, 21.3-57.3). The main reasons for not reporting were a perceived lack of time (45.4%), and a diminished perception of risk exposure (36.4%). In contrast, factors associated with the probability of having less occupational accidents included being hired for service time (prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.04-0.89; p = 0.034), and the permanent use of personal protective equipment (PR = 0.14; 95% IC, 0.02-0.88; p =0.036). Accident statistics in clinical laboratories prove the necessity to systematically reorganize risk management strategies that take into account human factor, organizational culture and control mechanisms.