Occupational Safety & Health · Health workers

Infection and sharps injuries among health workers

Needle-stick injuries, hepatitis B and C, HIV, tuberculosis and COVID-19 — the leading biological risks in health care and what prevents them.

Last updated: 3 October 2026

Framework Data Hazards Sectors People Health workers Hub

Overview

Health workers are exposed daily to blood and body fluids. A needle-stick or other sharps injury can transmit hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV; airborne exposure transmits tuberculosis and respiratory viruses. WHO estimated that in 2000 about 66,000 hepatitis B, 16,000 hepatitis C and 1,000 HIV infections occurred among health workers worldwide because of percutaneous injuries, and that about 37–39% of hepatitis B and C infections among health workers were attributable to such injuries (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2005). A global meta-analysis estimated that 36.4% of health workers sustain a percutaneous injury in any given year, most of them needle-sticks (Auta et al., 2018).

GILS found no published Georgian data on this hazard. This page therefore sets out the international evidence and the standards that apply, and defines what the GILS 2027 survey of health workers with the David Tvildiani Medical University School of Public Health will measure.

Key figures

36.4%

Health workers with a percutaneous injury in a year, global pooled estimate

Auta et al. (2018)

66,000 · 16,000 · 1,000

Hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infections among health workers from sharps injuries, worldwide (2000)

Prüss-Üstün et al. (2005), WHO

≈2 million

Percutaneous exposures among 35 million health workers each year

World Health Report 2002, cited in Prüss-Üstün et al. (2005)

No data

Published Georgian figures on sharps injuries or occupational infection among health workers

GILS

What prevents infection

Core measures
Measure	Standard
Hepatitis B immunisation of all health workers	WHO and ILO (2022) make immunisation a core element of facility programmes; hepatitis B is the only one of the three bloodborne viruses preventable by vaccine
Safety-engineered sharps and no recapping	EU Directive 2010/32/EU on prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector; an EU benchmark for Georgia
Post-exposure protocols and reporting	Immediate first aid, risk assessment, post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, testing and follow-up; a facility focal point for occupational health (WHO and ILO, 2022)
Airborne infection control	Tuberculosis screening and respiratory protection; pandemic preparedness after COVID-19 (WHO and ILO, 2020)

Georgia

Georgia has run a national hepatitis C elimination programme since 2015, led by the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes occupational hepatitis C among health workers a particularly relevant and measurable question. GILS found no published statistics on sharps injuries, hepatitis B vaccination coverage of health workers, or occupational infections. The Organic Law on Occupational Safety (2019) applies to hospitals as employers; EU Directive 2010/32/EU is not among the five directives Georgia transposed in 2022–2023 (ETF–Eurofound, 2024).

Public health perspective (WHO)

Sharps injuries are a public health problem as well as an occupational one: WHO's burden estimate (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2005) treats them as a transmission route for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV within health systems. WHO's infection prevention and control framework, immunisation of health workers (a core element of Caring for those who care) and post-exposure prophylaxis belong to the health system, not to labour inspection. In Georgia, the hepatitis C elimination programme gives the health sector an existing platform to measure and prevent occupational infection. Workers' health: the public health perspective.

What the GILS 2027 survey will measure

Sharps injuries in the last 12 months, by occupation and setting, and whether they were reported.
Hepatitis B vaccination status and knowledge of post-exposure protocols.
Availability of safety-engineered devices and sharps containers.
Occupationally acquired infections, including COVID-19, as reported by respondents.

Related across the PHIG network

Health-worker safety is where GILS's evidence meets the accreditation standards, training and resources produced elsewhere in the PHIG network.

ASF Hospital Standard — Human Resources and staff safety chapters (Accréditation Sans Frontières): the accreditation requirements for staff immunisation, sharps safety, violence prevention and occupational health in facilities.
ASF free resources: hand-hygiene and transmission posters, patient-safety tools — print-ready A4 materials for wards.
GMJ Academy — ASF Accreditation and Patient Safety courses — free until the end of 2026.
PHIG — Health and Migration Observatory — for migrant health workers and health-system capacity.
GMJ News · Work & Health — GILS analyses as published by the newsroom.

GILS is a programme of the Public Health Institute of Georgia; see the PHIG network.

Sources

Prüss-Üstün, A., Rapiti, E., Hutin, Y. (2005). Estimation of the global burden of disease attributable to contaminated sharps injuries among health-care workers. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Auta, A. et al. (2018). Global prevalence of percutaneous injuries among healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology. academic.oup.com
WHO and ILO (2022). Caring for those who care. www.who.int
ETF–Eurofound (2024). Working life in Georgia. www.etf.europa.eu

Figures are from the GILS Evidence Register and the official sources shown. GILS is independent of government, trade unions, employers' organisations and the ILO.