Margaret Frances "Peggy" Ferro (March 19, 1949 – November 4, 1998) was an American healthcare activist and nurse's aide. Her efforts led to laws requiring the use

safety syringe A safety syringe is a syringe with a built-in safety mechanism to reduce the risk of needlestick injuries to healthcare workers and others. The needle on a safety syringe can be detachable or permanently attached. On some models, a sheath is pla ...

s in hospitals and other medical settings.

Early life

Ferro was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

Career

Ferro worked in hospitals in San Francisco in the early 1980s, and fought to open an

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

ward in one hospital. She was active in the Hospital and Institutional Workers Union. She was a nurse's aide in 1990, when she received a

needlestick injury A needlestick injury is the penetration of the skin by a hypodermic needle or other sharp object that has been in contact with blood, tissue or other body fluids before the exposure. Even though the acute physiological effects of a needlestick i ...

while clearing a table in an emergency room. She learned two months later that she was

HIV-positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the ...

. She worked for changes in the law to require hospitals to use safety needles to prevent similar injuries in others. In a 1992 Congressional hearing, using the pseudonym "Jean Roe", because of the stigma associated with her HIV status. She cooperated in making two videos, ''The Real Jane Roe'', about her experiences, and a training video for nurses about needle safety. Ferro started a support group for HIV-positive women. "Peggy wanted to make sure women with AIDS were not invisible," her partner told the ''

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' in 1998. The law she lobbied to create was passed in California shortly before her death, and went into effect in July 1999. At the federal level, the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act became a national law in 2000.

Personal life

Ferro was briefly married in the 1980s. Ferro died from AIDS in San Francisco in 1998, at the age of 49, survived by her partner Cindy Chang. "Her reputation was far-reaching, and her situation was tragic," commented Assemblywoman

Carole Migden Carole Migden (born August 14, 1948 in New York City) is an American politician from San Francisco who represented the California's 3rd State Senate district, third district of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008 and the California's 1 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferro, Peggy 1949 births 1998 deaths HIV/AIDS activists People from Staten Island AIDS-related deaths in California