HIV/AIDS in health care makes up 5% of all cases
CDC reports breakdown of occupations
How many health care workers are infected with HIV/AIDS? Detailed surveillance has enabled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to gather that information, which includes all HIV/AIDS cases for which occupational information is known, through Dec. 31, 1999. Here’s what they found:
Five percent of AIDS cases occurred in people with health care occupations, or 22,218 of the 437,407 for whom occupational information was known. Another 287,249 cases were missing such occupational information. The health care occupations with the highest number of cases were nurses (4,856), health aides (4,859), and technicians (2,933). The CDC reported that throughout the course of the epidemic, 1,691 physicians and 114 surgeons have been infected with HIV/AIDS.
Overall, 74% of health care workers with AIDS have died, including 3,619 nurses, 1,334 physicians, and 84 surgeons. The CDC knows of 56 health care workers in the United States who have been documented as having seroconverted to HIV following occupational exposures. Twenty-five have developed AIDS. The large majority (48 of the 56) had a percutaneous exposure. Other exposures were mucocutaneous (mucous membrane or skin), both percutaneous and mucocutaneous, or of an unknown nature.
The CDC also cites 136 cases of health care workers with HIV/AIDS who reported no other risk factors for HIV infection and had a history of occupational exposure to blood, body fluids, or HIV-infected laboratory material, but for whom seroconversion after exposure was not documented.
Source: National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Surveillance of Health Care Workers with HIV/AIDS. Atlanta; 2000.
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