HIV Positive Doctors may be Allowed to Work in NHS

The Department of Health, UK has opened a consultation on making changes to its policy on the employment of people with HIV.

Doctors, dentists and health workers with HIV could soon be allowed to work in NHS.

Presently HIV positive health workers cannot perform surgery or dental treatment due to the risk of transmission, in case they cut themselves with their instruments and infect patients with their blood. The Department of Health wants to lift the current ban because it claims that this risk of transmission to patients is negligible.

AIDS/HIV - Clinical Features - Treatment - FAQ - Prevention & Transmission
"AIDS is an epidemic disease, a potentially preventable, deadly infection for which there is no cure, no vaccine, and it is not under control." - National Commission on AIDS, 1993.

Research undertaken by the NHS suggests the risk of a patient catching HIV from their doctor, dentist or surgeon is less than 1 in 5 million, similar to that of being killed by lightning. This risk can be further reduced by ensuring that infected members of staff take medications to reduce their virus count, which means it cannot easily be passed on.

So far Britain has not recorded any case of patients catching HIV from a healthcare worker. The Department of Health has launched a consultation on its proposals to lift the ban and will gather feedback from organizations and the public till 9th March 2012. The final decision will come after that.

Source-Medindia

About AIDS/HIV - Prevention
Encyclopedia section of medindia explains in brief about the prevention for AIDS/HIV

Screening for HIV/AIDS Infection
Efficient screening and better drugs help reduce the prevalence of HIV infection. A number of tests like ELIZA & Western Blot are used for screening HIV.

About Lab Test for AIDS/HIV
Describes how screening for HIV is performed in a laboratory.