Given the recognition of MRSA infections, our hospital's infectious disease
control RN has advised the RNs and LCs to use universal precautions (gloves,
in this case) whenever coming in contact with breastmilk.  I looked through
the archives and came up with this :

The letter is dated  December 14, 1992, and is from Roger Clark, Director of
OSHA.  In part, the  letter reads, "Breast milk (sic) is not included in the
standard's definition of  "other potentially infectious materials."  Therefore
contact with breast  milk does not constitute occupational exposure, as
defined by the  standard.  This determination was based on the Centers
for Disease
Control's findings that human breast milk has not been implication in the
transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or the
hepatitis B virus
(HBV) to workers although it has been implicated in perinatal trasmission of
HIV  and the hepatitis surface antigen has been found in the milk of mothers
infected  with HBV.  For this reason, gloves should be worn by health care
workers in  situations where exposures to breast milk might be frequent, for
example, in  milk banking."

So, it's interesting that the policy was based on HBV and HIV as
opposed to MRSA. Does an LC or a NICU RN have "frequent exposure to
breastmilk"? (Which is an odd thought anyway--one's odds of
contracting an infectious disease go up with repeated exposure, but it
only takes one actual transmission to get infected.  So why would an
official OHSA or CDC policy make it be a matter of judgement on what
was frequent exposure?)

None of us has treated breastmilk as a biohazard so far and we're
wondering what to base our response on.
Any official bodies of wisdom policies in this arena? Looking forward
to hearing lots of opinions as well...
Susan Lawrence

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