ABSTRACT
Universal precautions (UP) are recommended work practices designed to protect health-care workers (HCWs) from exposure to blood-borne pathogens, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B. Specific precautions include proper disposal of needles and other sharps, not recapping used needles and using disposable latex gloves and other protective garments and equipment. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued formal guidelines related to UP in 1987 (Centers for Disease Control, 1987) and UP became mandatory in the USA in 1991 with the passage of the OSHA Blood-borne Pathogens Standard (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 1991). These actions notwithstanding, a number of studies indicate that compliance with UP is inconsistent and often quite poor (e.g. Becker et al., 1990; Kelen et al., 1990, Hersey and Martin, 1994).
