To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of NHS staff who have contracted (a) HIV/AIDS and (b) hepatitis C through a needlestick injury in each of the last five years; (291584)

Information on the number of needlestick injuries to national health service staff in each hospital trust is not collected centrally.

However, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) collects information on significant occupational exposures to blood-borne viruses in health care workers in the United Kingdom. The HPA’s latest report “Eye of the Needle, United Kingdom Surveillance of Significant Occupational Exposures to Blood Borne Viruses in Healthcare Workers, November 2008” has been placed in the Library and is available on the HPA’s website at:

www.camr.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb-C/1205394781623

This report, which provides data up to the end of 2007, includes information on the number of documented cases of health care workers who have contracted HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C through a needlestick injury in 2004-07, which are summarised in the following table.