In Israel, tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and staff members are stabbed with needles every year, and as a result they are exposed to the risk of contracting serious diseases, and even have to deal with anxiety and mental stress.
Every day about 40 members of the medical staff at the various hospitals report being stabbed.
In practice, the number of stabbings is estimated to be three times as many doctors do not report.
"It is estimated that there are about 40,000 stab wounds per year in Israel's hospitals," says Prof. Miriam Weinberger, director of the infectious diseases department at Assaf Harofeh.
According to her, "many doctors avoid going to get checked because you might disrupt the shifts of your friends, and you can't leave your patients because we are sometimes the only ones on shift."
Months of turmoil.
Prof. Weinberger,
About 35 years ago, when Weinberger was an intern, she herself was stabbed while caring for a patient.
"At that time, there was no treatment for hepatitis B. The doctor called me and said, 'Remember the patient you were stabbed by? It turned out that he had hepatitis B.' Completely for three months."
The nightmare following the stabbing
"I worked with a surgeon who was stabbed by the needle of an AIDS patient," said Weinberger, "he claimed that for six months he did not have sex for fear that he had contracted AIDS. This explains the terrible stress of such a stabbing. Even though his tests were negative - he still lives in terrible fear." .
Michal (pseudonym) also experienced a case of being stabbed by a patient's needle while she was volunteering at the MDA. "Three years ago I treated a person injured in a car accident in the ambulance, and after I gave him an infusion the driver Natan Brax and the needle went into my knee."
great danger.
Needles (illustration), photo: Gideon Markovich
The situation got complicated when Michal found out that the person injured in the accident had AIDS and since then, according to her, "a very long and tedious process began. I was forbidden to continue volunteering at MDA.
My life stopped, and I lived every day fearing that I might have AIDS.
I was in a fight.
It was my biggest nightmare, after six months they discovered that I had nothing.
I stopped having sex with my partner, not even hugs, although I could hug.
I couldn't touch him.
I just feel like my whole life in this six months has stopped."
Michal also comes out against the phenomenon where medical teams are stabbed and choose not to report.
"In my opinion, they are wrong. They do not accept responsibility. If you start to be a carrier of a disease, you need to know and be more careful, all the more so if you work with patients."
The problem is not addressed
Compared to Western countries, Israel does not present effective defense solutions.
For example, in the USA, a country where the healthcare system is private, there is an obligation to use active protective measures, which include protected needles.
The European directive also recommends the use of safety equipment.
The decision was based on studies that proved that needles with active protection broadly protect the medical teams and have been proven to prevent up to 99% of stabbings.
Prof. Miriam Weinberger presents: These are the replacement needles
"For two decades I have been trying to promote the issue of safe needles in Israeli hospitals," emphasizes Weinberger, "There is no reason in the world for staff members to be exposed to needlesticks and contracting AIDS, hepatitis B and hepatitis C."
The Ministry of Health responded: "We are not familiar with the data presented. Naturally, the matter is dealt with at the institutional level. In addition, there is a circular from the Ministry that directs action to prevent the events described. Also, in every licensing control of hospitals, a control is included in the framework of which events of this type are examined."
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