Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston
Globe
November 18, 2000, Saturday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: LETTERS; Pg. A16
LENGTH: 195 words
HEADLINE:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR;
STOPPING NEEDLE-STICKS
BODY:
HAVING BEEN A STAFF NURSE FOR OVER 20 YEARS,
I KNOW THE TRAGEDY OF NEEDLE-STICK INJURIES. MORE THAN 600,000
OF THESE INJURIES OCCUR ANNUALLY, AND 1,000 OF THEM RESULT IN LIFE-THREATENING
INFECTIONS. I WAS ONE WHOSE INJURY PROVED TRAGIC. I CONTRACTED HIV AND HEPATITIS
C FROM A NEEDLE-STICK INJURY IN 1998.
After being told of the infections
I had sustained, I became determined to do what I could to prevent it from
happening to someone else. As president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association,
I joined the effort of the American Nurses Association to become a national
advocate on this issue, testifying before Congress and speaking to local and
national media.
Even though more than 80 percent of needle-stick
injuries could be prevented through the use of safer, needleless products, fewer
than 15 percent of hospitals use these devices.
On
Nov. 6, President Clinton signed the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act,
which in time will help make needle-stick injuries a thing of the past. What
could be more positive than preserving the health and safety, and perhaps even
the lives, of hundreds of thousands of nurses?
KAREN DALEY
Canton
GRAPHIC: DRAWING, DONNA MARIE
GRETHEN-TONG ILLUSTRATION
LOAD-DATE: November 19, 2000
