Subject: HIV in Health Workers a Minor Risk
Date: Published: 11/12/91 (34 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Labor Letter:
    A Special News Report on People
    And Their Jobs in Offices,
    Fields and Factories
    ----
    By Albert R. Karr

[68 lines irrelevant to AIDS removed.  --sysop]

    THE AIDS VIRUS in health workers is a very minor risk for
 patients.
    A report by the congressional Office of Technology
 Assessment agrees with the federal Centers for Disease
 Control that the danger an infected health-care worker would
 transmit the human immunodeficiency virus to patients is
 extremely small.  But analysis is too tricky to support or
 disprove the CDC's estimate that 13 to 128 patients may have
 been infected during dental and surgical procedures in the
 past 10 years, the OTA says.
    The five patients infected by a Florida dentist are the
 only known cases of HIV transmission to patients, excluding
 transfusions, the OTA says.  It agrees that mandatory testing
 of health-care workers isn't justified.
    CDC guidelines for precautions are helpful, but some may
 deter workers from seeking counseling or testing, the OTA
 says.

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 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
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