"Doctors with AIDS"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Doctors with AIDS"

Washington Post (12/28/90), P. A19
Hentoff, Nicholas

Abstract: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) should recommend mandatory HIV testing for health care workers who perform invasive procedures as an employment standard to protect the right of a helpless patient not to be subjected to any unnecessary health risks, writes Nicholas Hentoff, a Phoenix lawyer, in the Washington Post. The CDC has promised to issue guidelines to minimize the risk" of HIV transmission, but that is not enough, he writes. For surgical procedures, anything less than prohibiting HIV-infected workers from employment would violate the Hippocratic oath. Studies have shown that gloves frequently are punctured during surgical procedures and the risk to patients cannot be eliminated, he writes. New guidelines are needed that eliminate, not minimize the risk of HIV transmission from health care worker to patient, he concludes.

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