{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025043680838672103, 'fraction_numerical': 0.006988934187536401, 'mean_word_length': 5.092198581560283, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 1, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 1, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Occupational Exposure to Infection: A study on Healthcare Waste Handlers of a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India.

INTRODUCTION
Occupational exposure to infection is an important public health concern. Such accidents are associated with a few, but pose significant risk to worker's health, family and the community.


OBJECTIVE
1) To assess the knowledge and attitude of waste handlers regarding healthcare waste management in tertiary care hospital of Mangalore. 2) To assess the occupational risk of exposure to infection in their work setting.


METHOD
A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare waste handlers (involved in collection, storage and safe disposal) in a tertiary care hospital of Mangalore, India. A semi-structured and pre-tested proforma was used to assess respondents' knowledge and percentage score was calculated based on a scoring system. Chi square and independent sample t tests were applied to judge the association of study variables with knowledge and occupational risk of infection.


RESULTS
A total of 43 healthcare waste handlers participated in the study and all were females. Almost half of them had poor knowledge (< 50% score) about healthcare waste management. As much as 41.8% of them had exposure to healthcare waste and 'needle stick injury' was the most common type. Age, literacy and experience did not significantly (p>0.05) influence the knowledge and occupational risk of infection.


CONCLUSIONS
Respondents' knowledge regarding healthcare waste management was unsatisfactory. They were at high risk of occupational exposure to infection. It emphasizes the need of refresher training and reinforcement of personal protection measures in their work setting.