At least 23 people are vulnerable to infections after a student brought blood glucose tests to the science fair at Colégio-Curso Tamandaré and performed the tests on attendees of the event without changing the needles of three lancets used in the examination. The incident happened last Saturday, at a unit of the institution located in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, in the Southwest Zone of Rio de Janeiro.
Based on guidelines established by the Ministry of Health, those who were pricked in the incident are advised to seek, within 72 hours, healthcare facilities to assess the need to enter the Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) protocol.
The student brought the blood glucose tests to the science fair and performed the examinations on various people using the same three lancets, without changing them between procedures, which constitutes a risk of contamination by blood-borne diseases.
The health monitoring of people exposed to the risk should last at least 90 days, the period necessary to detect any contamination by diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. The Vice President of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases (SBI), Tânia Vergara, explained how prophylactic treatment works in these cases.
