Bitten at work!

[Mr Happy]

Hello all


Some of you may be aware of who i work for, for those of you that don't i get paid to lock prisoners up!

Well today i was given a job of searching a prisoner and his cell along with another Officer. Initially the prisoner is not too happy but rules are rules and the search was done.

When the prisoner was returned to his cell he immediately became aggressive and abusive towards myself and the other Officer, he then jumped on me, pulled me to the bed and latched his teeth onto my finger causing it to bleed!

So i attend hospital, was given a HEP B jab and was told all will be fine!, although this prisoner is a known drug user and has had no recent blood screening, i was also told i have nothing to worry about!

My head is ready to burst with what i guess is stress, i have had very little help in the way of support or direction from my place of work and the hospital.

Now very little research has told me i need several blood tests before i am considered clear!, this i was never told or offered.


I guess i am complaining and asking for help at the same time, has anyone been through this or have any help to offer,

[Big_malc]

if you work for a prison service at lest they should offer you counselling to be honest the provisions you have stated suck and no you not complaining m8 you have every right to know you are fine after being assaulted.

[Nexxo]

Talk to your occupational health peeps, and your GP (just for a second opinion). Then talk to your union rep.

Sucks, man. Being assaulted at work, even if it is an acknowledged occupational risk, always rattles you. You may feel a bit wobbly in your confidence facing the inmates and assessing risk and hypervigilant for the next few weeks. Talk to the occupational health counsellor if it lasts longer than that.

[Mr Happy]

Originally Posted by Big_malc

if you work for a prison service at lest they should offer you counselling to be honest the provisions you have stated suck and no you not complaining m8 you have every right to know you are fine after being assaulted.

Thanks mate, and yes you guessed my employer

No counseling was offered! maybe the reason i am posting, i am pizzed off, not knowing if i have caught something until i get an answer in a few month (6-9 month wait)

[Mr Happy]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

Talk to your occupational health peeps, and your GP (just for a second opinion). Then talk to your union rep.

Sucks, man. Being assaulted at work, even if it is an acknowledged occupational risk, always rattles you. You may feel a bit wobbly in your confidence facing the inmates and assessing risk and hypervigilant for the next few weeks. Talk to the occupational health counsellor if it lasts longer than that.

Thanks Nexxo

More support here already than what i got from work

[Porkins' Wingman]

I got bitten by a female drug addict at work once, although if I remember correctly she only managed to graze my wrist rather than fully break it and draw blood, but it was about 6 years ago so I can't remember the details.

I remember filling in the form just after it happened and no-one else seeming to cotton on to me sitting there with ideas going through my head about what I might contract etc.

At the time I think I just figured, 'what's happened has happened, if the bitch has given me HIV there's not much I can do about it now'.

Again, my injury doesn't sound quite as bad as yours so I'm not saying you should just shrug it off like I did, but in many ways the worse bit about it was seeing that none of my colleagues seemed give a damn. Helped me realise the reality of working relationships that one.

I've no idea what the chances are of contracting anything like HIV from a bite like you received, but I doubt many people can give you a reliable answer to that. People may or may not offer reassurances about it but the only I think you can categorically know is by getting tested.

This site says "Saliva does contain HIV, but the virus is only present in very small quantities and as such has never been known to cause HIV infection.".

I personally never bothered with any tests etc. but everyone is different, as are the individual circumstances, so just see how easy you find it to forget about it and if you can't then obviously look into having some tests for HIV or whatever else it is that concerns you.

Also bear in mind that your employer is responsible for protecting you at work, so unless you were clearly flouting work policies then your employer is liable for your injury and any longger term effects and costs incurred through treatment, stress, missed work etc. Therefore you might find it useful to make sure you've written a full account of what happened, who else witnessed it etc. and if it really does impact for any significant time then you can consider making a claim if you wanted to.

[Parge]

If you are worried about catching HIV (or any other disease transmitted through the blood) - don't be! The chances of it being transmitted through a bite are extremely extremely low (like, almost lottery level odds) unless he had something strange like scurvy!

You don't work on a Prison ship in Somalia do you?

[BentAnat]

Around Namibia (as a high-HIV infection region. Official numbers as high as 1/5, unofficially, it's said 1/3 is more realistic here), the normal procedure (provided you don't go the State hospital, where you get Paracetamol for a cracked skull and pregnancy - no jokes) would be:
Treat wound, get your normal jabs, blood test, and preventative ARVs until the second test which would be 3 weeks later.
Should that test come back negative for HIV, the ARVs will be stopped.

For that matter, in a car accident involving injuries, ARVs are relatively normal, and our medical aids (all private - no state Medical here) pay out for ARVs (some rules apply here, but they are forced to pay out). You can pretty much go to your local quack here, show an injury, or explain why you think you should get them, and he'll make sure you get them if it's reasonable.

This has opened drug abuse problems here (HIV positive patients selling their ARVs to kids for smoking), but in a region with the infection rate we have, it's "shoot first" in that regard.

[BentAnat]

Originally Posted by Parge

If you are worried about catching HIV (or any other disease transmitted through the blood) - don't be! The chances of it being transmitted through a bite are extremely extremely low (like, almost lottery level odds) unless he had something strange like scurvy!

You don't work on a Prison ship in Somalia do you?

I'm sorry, but wrong attitude.
Quite frankly, the chance of catching it (as a guy) are already surprisingly low. Does that mean that you go ahead without a rubber? NO!
It's quite frankly not a disease to be f*cked around with, and as such even a 1% infection chance is way, WAAAY too high a chance to take.

[Throbbi]

I'm inclined to agree with BentAnat, even though the risk in this particular circumstance is probably 0.0000001% it's still not 0%. Even with the knowledge of it being virtually impossible it will be there in the back of your mind somewhere and wont rest until you know for certain.

PLease don't think I'm trying to be alarmist here, it's quite possibly just me thinking that way(I do suffer greatly with Anxiety focused around health concerns so I'm probably carrying a lot of bias) but as said, it's not something to **** around with. Be sure, be content.

As far as your employers go I'd like to think they'd be a little more prepared for dealing with such a situation beyond 'have a jab, you'll be alright lad'.

[Parge]

Originally Posted by BentAnat

I'm sorry, but wrong attitude.
Quite frankly, the chance of catching it (as a guy) are already surprisingly low. Does that mean that you go ahead without a rubber? NO!
It's quite frankly not a disease to be f*cked around with, and as such even a 1% infection chance is way, WAAAY too high a chance to take.

Obviously I'm not saying 'don't take precautions' but in this case, where the incident has already taken place, I'm saying 'the chances you've caught it are minuscule, try not to worry about it'.

Being where you are, you are bound to have a heightened sense of awareness regarding AIDS. In the UK AIDS affects only 0.15% of the population, and even then you'd have to be unlucky enough to catch it through the bite, which is unlikely in itself.

The OP should take the logical, and above suggested precautions, and then try to logically assess the risk, to minimise any worry about having caught anything.

[BentAnat]

That I can agree with!

Worry is a b*tch in cases like that, and most people that have been for HIV tests know the "What If" feeling of dread associated with it.

The infection chance IS low, but increased with druggies (thanks to drug causing all sorts of weird symptoms, from bleeding gums to whatever).

[Mongoose132]

It is very rare, but in specific circumstances HIV can be transmitted by a human bite. In 1997, CDC published findings from a state health department investigation of an incident that suggested blood-to-blood transmission of HIV by a human bite. There have been other rare reports in the medical literature in which HIV appeared to have been transmitted by a human bite. Biting is not a common way of transmitting HIV, in fact, there are numerous reports of bites that did not result in HIV infection. Severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood were reported in each of the instances where transmission was documented or suspected. Bites that do not involve broken skin have no risk for HIV transmission, as intact skin acts as a barrier to HIV transmission.


-There is a remote risk of transmission by human bite. All documented cases where transmission did occur included severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood.

http://www.thebody.com/content/30024...?getPage=4#q16

Chances of HIV contraction are so low you shouldn't worry about it, the very few documented cases were where the biter (bitee?) had open sores and blood in their mouths, and the wounds were very messy. You're more likely to choke on a peanut made of gold from the sky so don't worry about that.

However, you can contract Hep C and B, Herpes Simplex (which is very common, Worldwide rates of HSV infection are between 65% and 90% http://pedsinreview.aappublications....ntent/30/4/119) along with syphilis, tuberculosis , actinomycosis, and tetanus

[Mr Happy]

Thank you for the reply's all.

Have spoken to occupational health who have managed to put my mind more at ease, they are also doing blood tests.

My main annoyance is how my work couldn't give a flying monkeys about me, something i will talk to them about when i return to work after my weekend off.

Cheers people

[laurie53]

Work related injury involving hospital visit, HSE must, repeat must, by law, be informed.

Just in case you think I am an H&S nut, I'm not.

There was a case of a lady working for a major food retailer who banged her ankle on a freezer.

She rubbed it and carried on working, but as the skin was broken took the precaution of filling out an accident report.

As luck would have it a rare bone condition set it and she had to have her leg amputated. Unfortunately they didn't get to it in time and the condition spread to her other leg, which had to come off as well.

Because she'd had the good sense to fill out a contemporaneous company accident report, the company's insurers had to make a handsome payment, which made her life a lot more comfortable than the simple statutory state benefits would have done..

Get it reported!.

[Mr Happy]

Thanks laurie53

I have reported this at work through the correct procedures. I think my main challenge will be to have my 2 days sick ( for hospital / occupational tests) reclaimed. This is an injury at work after all. I have seen fellow Officers off for months for the same level of injury, i only had 2 days.

Makes me think if i should have taken more time off for the hell of it.

[dolphie]

Had my fingers crossed this thread would be about a mosquito :/

[MiNiMaL_FuSS]

You're perfectly in the right, you need to be checked out for your health and your piece of mind. Make sure work 'refund' your days.

It usually takes a fair amount of bodily fluid to transfer anything significant from one person to another, so the odds are that you're all clear

[TheManicGibbon]

I'd like to stress that I'm not a medical professional - but I've done a few biology courses and I agree with what's being said here. The chance that you'll have contracted something like HIV from saliva is minuscule, because it's present in such tiny concentrations in saliva. As has been said, it would only become more likely if you had had actual blood to blood contact which it sounds like you haven't.

Sounds like you've been treated in a pretty shoddy way though, hope you get things sorted out.