No Univeral Precautions with Saliva?

[MMiz]

I just read that unless saliva is tinged with blood, it does not require universal precautions. What's the reasoning/thought process on this one?

 

[Elliott]

Why should it be regarded as such? As long as you have appropriate PPE it shouldn't really be an issue unless you're dealing with a TB patient or something similar.

 

[VentMedic]

Universal precautions came out around 1988 at the height of the HIV era which is nowhere near over. It concerned primarily bloodborne pathogens.

However, for many patient we automatically use universial precautions for the potential of bleeding just like dental professionals. That includes trauma, intubation and bleeding disorders.

Now healthcare settings, especially ICUs and OR, are battling oral secretions to reduce VAP with q2 hour mouth cleaning and special ETTs to prevent aspiration of bacteria found in the oral cavity and pharynx. This can include many potent strains of staph.

For these reasons, hospitals have rewritten their infection control manuals to be inclusive of the bacteria along with the viruses.

http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlPrinter=true&xmlFilePath=journals/ija/vol2n4/secretion.xml

 

[BossyCow]

Why should it be regarded as such? As long as you have appropriate PPE it shouldn't really be an issue unless you're dealing with a TB patient or something similar.

And how do you know that the pt has TB or something similar? Isn't that where the 'universal' part comes from.. it's all infected.