[AIDS as an occupational disease in health care personnel]

Abstract

Since the health-care workers are frequently exposed to human blood they are considered to be at greater risk for acquiring HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Body fluids to which universal precautions apply include blood, vaginal secretions, semen, tissues, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial, pleural, peritoneal, pericardial and amniotic fluid. These fluids of all patients are considered potentially infectious for HIV, and so are all the patients undergoing invasive procedures. Appropriate barrier precautions (gloves, aprons, masks and a protective eyewear) should prevent the skin and mucosa exposure to blood or other body fluids. If, however, a health-care worker has a parenteral of the mucosa exposure to blood or other body fluids of a HIV positive patient he should be tested for HIV antibody immediately after exposure, 6 weeks, 12 weeks and 6 months post-exposure. Among a variety of antiretroviral chemotherapeutic agents, so far, in humans only zidovudine has shown efficacy in vivo.