NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Children who are accidentally
stuck with an improperly discarded needle or syringe appear to
be at low risk for acquiring hepatitis or HIV, new research
suggests.

In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, Canadian
researchers found that of 274 children with needlestick
injuries, none became infected with HIV or the hepatitis B or C
viruses.

Nevertheless, parents should immediately seek medical
advice whenever a child is stuck by a potentially contaminated
needle, say Dr. Caroline Quach and her colleagues.

To insure efficacy, “most prophylactic (preventive)
measures need to be given early after the injury,” Quach, from
Montreal Children's Hospital and McGill University, told
Reuters Health.

For their study, Quach and her colleagues assessed the risk
of infection among 274 children who'd been stuck by a
potentially contaminated needle and were seen over a 19-year
period at two major pediatric hospitals in Montreal.

The children, most of whom received therapies to prevent
infection, were followed for six months. This is the longest
period of time over which someone could develop antibodies
against the viruses in question and therefore show they were
infected, Quach explained.

After six months the investigators found no hepatitis B,
hepatitis C or HIV infections among the children they were able
to test.

Children frequently find discarded needles in “safe” areas
such as parks and around home, Quach said. Children may pick up
these needles and intentionally stick themselves “not realizing
there is a potential health threat associated to a needlestick
injury,” she noted.

The children in her study were 8 years old, on average, and
in most cases had been stuck by a discarded needle found in the
street or a park. About 65 percent of the children
intentionally picked up the needle.

The number of needlestick injuries followed and treated in
this study “is large enough to comfort us in the low risk of
transmission of infections,” Quach said.

Still, she and her colleagues say, children may need to be
better educated about the dangers of discarded needles.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 2008.