Call the Needlestick Hotline immediately for guidance.
During Business Hours: 213-740-9355 (WELL)
After-Hours: (323) 442-7900 (Leave a message and a provider will get back to you within 30 minutes)
USC Student Health provides services, associated with needlestick and bodily fluid exposures, for currently enrolled/matriculated USC students at low or no out-of-pocket, except for the prophylactic medication.
Protocol/Information to Students and Providers
What is an exposure?
- Percutaneous injury (e.g. needlestick or cut with a sharp object)
- Eye splash or contact with other mucous membrane or non-intact skin (chapped, abraded, or dermatitis)
- Potentially infectious bodily fluids:
- Blood
- Semen
- Vaginal secretions
- Cerebrospinal fluid
- Pleural/pericardial/synovial/peritoneal fluid
- Amniotic fluid
- Feces
- Any bodily fluid that may contain blood
If exposed what should I do?
- Wash needle sticks and cuts with soap and water
- Flush splashes to the nose, mouth, and skin with water
- Irrigate eyes with clean water or saline
- Obtain as much demographical data on the source patients as possible
- Ask your supervisor to consent the source patient to testing for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C at the time of exposure or when medically able to obtain consent. If possible, obtain a rapid HIV test on the source patient immediately.
- CALL STUDENT HEALTH IMMEDIATELY
- During business hours, please call 213-740-9355 (WELL) You will either be scheduled a same day visit or a phone consultation with one of the physicians; you may also ask for the nurse on call. The physician on call will evaluate the situation and determine what further evaluation and treatment is indicated.
- During after hours or weekends ONLY – please call either the needlestick hotline at (323) 442-7900 and leave a voicemail. A provider will call you back within 30 minutes.
Is there treatment to prevent blood borne disease after exposure?
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) – may be prevented by taking post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) medications for up to 4 weeks (if indicated).
- Hepatitis B (HBV) – in persons who have not been vaccinated or in non-responders to the vaccines, post exposure prophylaxis with two doses of HBV immune globulin is recommended.
- Hepatitis C (HCV) – there is no vaccine against hepatitis C and no treatment after an exposure that will prevent infection.
How soon after an exposure should treatment start?
- Post exposure treatment for Hepatitis B and HIV should be started as soon as possible, preferably within two hours after the exposure.
- Immediate follow-up with Student Health even if source patient’s rapid HIV is negative.
If the source patient is known to be HIV+:
- Determine the most recent viral load
- Obtain the antiretroviral treatment history, including any drug resistance
