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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 1998;279:188.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A national, toll-free hotline has been launched to help clinicians treat and counsel health care workers who experience on-the-job exposure to bloodborne diseases such as hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). At least 5000 needlestick exposures to HIV occur annually in the United States, according the estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new 24-hour service, called the National Clinicians' Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Hotline, or PEPline, is staffed by trained physicians who will provide clinicians with counseling and treatment recommendations for workers with needlestick injuries and other hazardous occupational exposures to bloodborne microbes.

The hotline can be reached from anywhere in the United States by calling (888) 448-4911.

"Clinicians—no matter where or when they call or where they live—can now quickly get state-of-the-art knowledge about how to help health care workers with needlestick injuries," said US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna . . . [Full Text of this Article]