Bloodborne Pathogens training and certification has taken a whole new urgency and is forefront of the news today since the COVID-19 virus came to light to the public and the news media. Ordinary citizens knew nothing to very little of the importance of PPE and how easily contamination occurs in the medical field as well as in other sectors of the economy.

It has been for a long time, been important that employers provide the proper PPE to employees appropriate for their field.  It is also important that employers provide the correct training on bloodborne pathogens as it relates to their work environment. There are several known bloodborne infectious diseases that must be extremely guarded against such as, Hepatitis A, B and C, HIV, Pneumonia, TB, Measles, among others.

The use of Universal Precautions such as the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard, standard precautions for the care of all patients, regardless of their diagnosis or presumed infection status, transmission based precautions for patients with known or suspected to be infected, should be utilized as an approach to infection control to treat all human blood and certain human body fluids as if they are know to be infectious.

Sources:

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/hospital/hazards/univprec/univ.html

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.1030#1910.1030(b)

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/bloodbornepathogens/recognition.html