WORKER PROTECTION FROM BLOODBORNE DISEASES

WHEREAS, the nation is currently facing an epidemic of blood-borne diseases. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that nearly 300,000 persons are infected with hepatitis B virus every year and that 1 million persons are currently infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); and

WHEREAS, 12,000 health care workers incur a work-related hepatitis B infection every year; nearly 200 die each year from such an infection; and

WHEREAS, children who are mainstreamed from long-term institutions have a greater chance of being infected with hepatitis B and hepatitis C; and

WHEREAS, recently arrived children from Asian countries are often infected with hepatitis B; and

WHEREAS, school teachers and staff have the potential for exposure to blood and body fluid in a variety of school settings. School staff that provide medical services for medically fragile children come into daily contact with blood and body fluid; and

WHEREAS, the work of health care professionals brings them into daily contact with blood and body fluid; and

WHEREAS, contaminated needles are a primary route of transmission of blood-borne pathogens:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers urge the immediate and comprehensive implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Blood-bome Disease standard in every school and health facility in the country including those facilities in non-OSHA state plan states; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers support passage of federal legislation that would mandate the Food and Drug Administration to set performance and safety standards for all needles and needle devices used in health care and school settings; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers recommend that the Centers for Disease Control's appropriations be expanded for more aggressive infection-control research that would lead to better engineering controls to reduce or eliminate the risk of patient and provider exposure to blood and body fluid; and

RESOLVED, that worker confidentiality be scrupulously maintained when a worker sustains a work-related exposure to blood and body fluid; and

RESOLVED, that broader public health initiatives be taken to educate the public about HIV transmission in a health care setting.