Question:medium
The chance that a health worker gets HIV from an accidental needle prick is:
The chance that a health worker gets HIV from an accidental needle prick is:
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Percutaneous occupational HIV risk is roughly 0.3 percent, charted as about 1 percent.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- 1%
- 10%
- 95%
- 100%
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The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Occupational HIV exposure in health staff is graded by how much infected material enters the body. A needle prick transfers only a tiny droplet, so the probability of catching the virus is one of the lowest among all exposure routes.
Step 2: Pooled surveillance data put the per-incident seroconversion rate after a percutaneous sharps injury at about 0.3%, which standard relative-risk charts round to nearly 1 percent. That points straight to choice (a).
Step 3: Compare this with receiving a full unit of contaminated blood, where transmission exceeds 90 percent. The figures of 95 percent and 100 percent listed in the other options simply do not exist for any HIV exposure scenario, let alone a small skin puncture.
Step 4: Aggravating factors such as a hollow bleeding needle, deep wound, or a source patient with high viraemia increase the odds, while prompt antiretroviral prophylaxis brings them back down.
\[\boxed{\text{About 1 percent}}\]
Step 2: Pooled surveillance data put the per-incident seroconversion rate after a percutaneous sharps injury at about 0.3%, which standard relative-risk charts round to nearly 1 percent. That points straight to choice (a).
Step 3: Compare this with receiving a full unit of contaminated blood, where transmission exceeds 90 percent. The figures of 95 percent and 100 percent listed in the other options simply do not exist for any HIV exposure scenario, let alone a small skin puncture.
Step 4: Aggravating factors such as a hollow bleeding needle, deep wound, or a source patient with high viraemia increase the odds, while prompt antiretroviral prophylaxis brings them back down.
\[\boxed{\text{About 1 percent}}\]
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