Bloodborne pathogens - Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry

Univeral precautions:Paragraph (d)(1) Universal precautions shall be observed to prevent contactwith blood or OPIM. Under circumstances in whichdifferentiation between body fluid types is difficult orimpossible, all body fluids shall be considered potentiallyinfectious materials.• “Universal precautions” is an approach to infection control. According to the concept,all human blood and certain human body fluids are treated as if known to be infectiousfor HIV, HBV and other bloodborne pathogens.• Assume the above status regardless of the perceived “low risk” status of a patient orpatient population.• As alternative concepts of infection control, body substance isolation (BSI) or standardprecautions are also acceptable because these methods expand coverage to include allbody fluids and substances, and to treat them as if known to be infectious.