There are now two British healthcare team members repatriated from Sierra Leone having suffered sharps or needlestick incidents while caring for patients in the Ebola outbreak there.

Above all, we wish those individuals well and hope that after a necessary period of observation they remain in good health.

It is an expectation that in each of the affected areas engineered sharps safety devices are in use. These can protect during disposal and, in some cases, during needle use. However, most do not protect the user during blood taking. Excellent technique is essential to prevent injury, but if a patient moves unexpectedly there is little that can really be done to stay safe.

There is one additional hope, that these cases raise still further the profile of sharps safety programs and sharps injury prevention to users and those involved in the collection and disposal of sharps waste. There are still far too many avoidable sharps injuries occurring to healthcare professionals and to that forgotten army of litter pickers and waste handlers, to emergency service staff, police and prison officers, and many others.

Let us hope that, long after these two individuals have been discharged from hospital, in good health, the circumstances of the cases are written up for more detailed review by the scientific community. That may assist in future prevention strategies, in the immediate period for the protection of those still working under such difficult and high risk circumstances in West Africa, and in the longer term by giving a boost to sharps injury prevention overall.