Risk for transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in health care settings

With the identification of HIV in 1981, the health care world was suddenly faced with the risk of HIV infection through occupational exposure to infected blood and body fluids. Health care workers and other people handling infected material were found to run the greatest risk of infection. Objective data on this issue have been provided by a number of recent studies carried out worldwide. The paper presents the characteristics of infected material, stress the importance of ≫general measures of precaution≪, and defines the term ≫occupational infection≪. According to the latest statistics, 64 cases of HIV seroconversion due to occupational exposure have been documented in the world. The most common immediate cause of infection was sticking of a needle containing HIV-infected blood. Among health care workers, nurses are most at risk (65 %), whereas the incidence of occupational infection in doctors is considerably lower (20,5 %). In some cases HIV seroconversion occured despite the employed measures of precaution and prophylactic therapy. The risk of occupational infection after a single percutaneous exposure is 0,33 %. In Slovenia, no case of occupational HIV infection has yet been reported. HIV transmission from seropositive health care workers to patients is possible, yet extremely rare.