Blood and Body Fluid Occupational Exposure Guideline
Version 1.0 approved 27 March 2025
The Blood and Body Fluid Occupational Exposure Guideline (PDF 746KB) forms part of our safe systems of work to minimise the risks associated with a worker’s exposure to contaminated blood, body fluids and needlestick/sharps injuries (clinically referred to as BBFE) which has the potential to transmit blood-borne viruses (BBVs) such as hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Exposures can occur through:
- Percutaneous injuries, such as a needle or scalpel (or any object that can pierce the skin); and
- Contact of mucous membranes or non-intact skin with blood, tissue or other bodily substances that are potentially infectious.
This guideline assists SA Health workplaces to appropriately assess and manage risks associated with occupational exposure to prevent disease transmission to our workers, or for a situation in which a patient is unintentionally exposed to blood or body fluids from a worker.
Applicability
This guideline applies to all workers of SA Health; that is all workers of the Department for Health and Wellbeing, Local Health Networks including state-wide services aligned with those Networks (LHNs) and SA Ambulance Service (SAAS).
For the purposes of this guideline:
- ‘workers’ refers to employees, contractors or subcontractors, students, and volunteers undertaking work on behalf of the above entities.
Predominately, this guideline applies to all staff directly involved in Clinical Worker Health or Infection Prevention Control (or local equivalent) to assist with the management of workers’ exposures to infectious diseases.
This guideline does not apply to patient-to-patient blood and body substance exposures. These incident types should be reported as per clinical incident requirements, refer to Clinical Incident Management Policy for further information.