When someone has been seriously injured on the job it is often a coworker or supervisor who is first to respond. Its natural for the first responder and others to be primarily concerned with helping the injured person. However, its also important that the responders protect themselves as well. This applies not only to visible threats that may be present, such as fire, falling debris, etc., but also to the invisible threat of infectious disease.
There are many ways to contract an infectious disease and someone who has such a disease may not even know it. One of the ways of contracting an infectious disease is by absorption through the skin or eyes. This toolbox talk provides information on other ways that infectious disease can be spread as well as universal precautions to be used when administering first aid.
