Preventing Infectious Diseases – Blood and Other Body Fluids

These guidelines should be followed whenever a participant, has a bleeding injury or open wound that may put others at risk of contamination with blood or other bodily fluids.

Any individual who sustains a blood injury must seek treatment immediately. It is the responsibility of the participant concerned and/or their coach to ensure that all bleeding injuries and open wounds are dealt with appropriately in accordance with the following guidelines.

• For all minor bleeding injuries, the individual should stop the activity in which they are involved and attempt to stop the bleeding. A fresh sterile dressing should be applied to the wound before continuing with training or competition.
• All recent cuts or blisters should be covered.
• If the bleeding cannot be stopped, the individual should seek medical attention and should not continue with training or competition until advised otherwise.
• Any individual treating an injury should wear disposable gloves, which should be disposed of as clinical waste after use (see below). Wherever possible, the injured individual should apply pressure to a bleeding wound with his/her own hands. Anyone applying a dressing should wash their hands both before and afterwards.
• If the casualty’s blood comes into contact with someone else’s mouth, eyes or broken skin use clean cold water to wash the affected area and take medical advice. • In cases where blood or other bodily fluids are clearly visible on clothing, the individual should replace clothing before continuing with any further activity.
• The contaminated clothing should be stored in a plastic bag and should be washed according to the guidelines on the label as soon as possible after contamination. Washing is enough to remove the contaminated substance even if the stain remains.
• Where contamination of equipment or very minor contamination of clothing has occurred, the area should be treated with a decontamination solution made up of one part household bleach to ten parts water. Solutions that are more than one day old should be disposed of. Diluted bleach that has passed its expiry date should not be used. 
• Clinical Waste - Wipe up spillage with heavy-duty paper and discard into a bag for incineration, including any soiled dressings or gloves. The contaminated area should be thoroughly soaked with the decontamination solution and left for two minutes. The area should then be rinsed with hot water and general-purpose detergent. A 0.5% solution of bleach is not considered to be hazardous, however care must be taken to ensure that the solution does not come into contact with the eyes, mouth or wounds, and should not be left on the skin for prolonged periods of time. • For spills of lower risk bodily fluids, e.g. urine and vomit, hot water and generalpurpose detergent is sufficient.
• Any individuals who are likely to have to deal with injuries should ideally be immunised against Hepatitis B.

Infectious diseases Please visit the www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases for up-date information regarding all infectious diseases.

Clubs/facilities should consider purchasing Blood/Biohazard Spill Packs, so ensure all necessary equipment is available.