ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512230004
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
The drug AZT appears to reduce substantially the risk of infection with the AIDS virus for health workers who are accidentally stuck with needles or other sharp instruments, federal health officials said Thursday.
In its weekly report, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the findings of the study it has conducted with British and French health officials.
AZT reduced the risk of infection from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by 79 percent, the study found. The study is believed to be the first to assess the risk factors from needle-stick injuries, which are a common and frightening problem for health care workers.
An estimated 250,000 to 1 million health care workers are stuck with needles or other medical instruments in the United States each year, experts said. It is not known how many were treated with AZT.
But only 46 of the more than 500,000 reported AIDS cases have been documented as resulting from occupational exposure, Dr. Denise Cardo, an epidemiologist at the disease agency, said in a telephone interview. AZT failed to prevent infection in at least eight cases, according to medical journals.
At San Francisco General Hospital, needle injuries occur about once every other day, said Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, who heads the hospital's infection control program. Education and prevention efforts have helped cut the number from about 300 in 1985.
Needle injuries can transmit any microbe in the blood. The three main types that are transmitted are the viruses that cause hepatitis B, hepatitis C and AIDS.
The disease control agency studied 31 health care workers who became infected after needle injuries and who had no other risk factors for AIDS and compared them with 679 others who were stuck with needles but who did not become infected.
They found that workers were more likely to be infected if the needle had stuck deeply, had been visibly contaminated with a patient's blood, or had entered a vein or artery. Risk also was higher if the needle had been removed from a patient who was dying from AIDS, when HIV often is most concentrated.
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