Employees who clean are the first defense for public health. They put their lives as well as those of their family in arms way to ensure the larger group is protected. Due to closeness of these employees to bloodborne pathogens while performing their duties it's important they are made aware of the dangers of the most important public health job that they are performing. Potentially infectious body fluids that cleaning employees come into contact with include blood, saliva, vomit, urine, semen or vaginal secretions. With any cleaning being performed employees should keep these in mind.

There are a number of bloodborne pathogens that these employees need to be aware of and they include, Malaria, EBV (mono), Syphilis, Hepatitis B(HBV), Hepatitis C(HCV), and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). These diseases have devastated communities and hence the need to know how to better protect themselves when they are cleaning. Some of these pathogens take a long time before someone even knows that they were exposed to it. 

Bloodborne pathogen awareness helps the cleaners know what PPE and how to wear or remove them for maximum protection. Proper wearing of PPE will be the best protection against contracting these diseases. Giving the knowledge to employees is the right thing to do as an employer. As a business you also want to protect your reputation as a best place to work. Its our responsibility to make sure that the employees are taken care of.