Risco de infecção pelos vírus das hepatites B e C nos trabalhadoresda coleta de resíduos de serviços de saúde em Belo Horizonte - MG

Abstract

Human contact with waste involves biological, chemical and physical health damages of workers involved in the collection, transportation and storage. The exposure to wastes covers factors such as excessive noise, solar radiation, excessive muscular effort, exposure to pathogens and toxic chemicals. Healthcare wastes HCW are potential sources of spread of disease. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the risk of infection with hepatitis B and C inherent in the HCW management activity, compared to the management of domestic waste. It will also be assessed the perception of the workers about the routine collection and its health risks. The applied methodology included literature review, meta-analisys, cross-sectional epidemiological study and focal groups.The cross-sectional study included 522workers, 461 subjects exposed to domestic waste and 61 subjects exposed to healthcare waste, between November 2014 and January 2015. Six focal groups were conducted with exposed to wastes. Were found similarities between hepatitis B prevalence between two groups, and a higher marginal result ofhepatitis C prevalence in exposed to healthcare waste if compared to those expose to domestic wastes, although not statistically significant. Workers associated the occurrence of diseases to the activity they performed, they comprehended risk associated to labor and considered labor accident just the events that they could not continue working, not considering many cuts provided by sharps.