"Found" needles pose low infection risk for kids
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are accidentally stuck with an improperly discarded needle or syringe appear to be at low risk for acquiring hepatitis or HIV, new research suggests.
In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, Canadian researchers found that of 274 children with needlestick injuries, none became infected with HIV or the hepatitis B or C viruses.
Nevertheless, parents should immediately seek medical advice whenever a child is stuck by a potentially contaminated needle, say Dr. Caroline Quach and her colleagues.
To insure efficacy, "most prophylactic (preventive) measures need to be given early after the injury," Quach, from Montreal Children's Hospital and McGill University, told Reuters Health.
For their study, Quach and her colleagues assessed the risk of infection among 274 children who'd been stuck by a potentially contaminated needle and were seen over a 19-year period at two major pediatric hospitals in Montreal.
The children, most of whom received therapies to prevent infection, were followed for six months. This is the longest period of time over which someone could develop antibodies against the viruses in question and therefore show they were infected, Quach explained.
After six months the investigators found no hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV infections among the children they were able to test.
Children frequently find discarded needles in "safe" areas such as parks and around home, Quach said. Children may pick up these needles and intentionally stick themselves "not realizing there is a potential health threat associated to a needlestick injury," she noted.
The children in her study were 8 years old, on average, and in most cases had been stuck by a discarded needle found in the street or a park. About 65 percent of the children intentionally picked up the needle.
The number of needlestick injuries followed and treated in this study "is large enough to comfort us in the low risk of transmission of infections," Quach said.
Still, she and her colleagues say, children may need to be better educated about the dangers of discarded needles.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 2008.
