The consequences of HIV infection are very serious, if not fatal. Statistics show health care providers with AIDS make up 4.8% of the total reported AIDS cases (Kent). Some health care workers have an especially high risk of contracting AIDS from their patients. If a health care provider is unaware that they have contracted the disease they run the risk of infecting other patients. Because of the many laws that protect health care providers from discrimination, employees have no reason be fearful of coming forth and informing their employer that they have contracted AIDS. In order to protect both the patient and health care provider it is vital that health care workers be tested regularly and report the results to their employer or the medical board. When health care employees follow the HIV testing guidelines they help to prevent the spread of this deadly virus.

AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, a disease in which the body's immune system breaks down. Normally, the immune system fights off infections and certain other diseases. When the system fails, a person with AIDS can develop a variety of life-threatening illnesses. The virus called the human immunodeficienc

Modern medicine commands mandatory testing to help reduce the rate at which the HIV virus is spreading. Incredibly, most medical groups oppose mandatory testing of physicians for HIV infection. They argue that the risk of transmission is extremely low, even in the case of invasive procedures. These groups believe that the cost for such testing would be phenomenal. Mandatory testing for HIV would help increase early detection and treatment, as well as decrease the high rate at which AIDS is currently spreading. Since it is possible to contract HIV and show no symptoms of the disease at all, health care workers who are never tested for HIV run the risk of unknowingly contracting the disease and as a consequence receiving late detection and treatment.

should be tested for HIV because she claimed she was a virgin and never used IV drugs. Before her death Kimberly had made an impassioned plea on television for new laws to protect patients, beginning a public campaign for mandatory HIV testing for all health workers (Tanner). The death Kimberly B. prompted the Center for Disease Control, CDC, to adopt guidelines in 1991 that say HIV infected health workers should reveal their disease to patients undergoing invasive procedures.

Health care providers cannot legally be discriminated against for having the HIV disease. Many employees feel that reporting their HIV status would jeopardize their job. However, current laws that protect employees with disabilities ensure that reporting the results of HIV tests taken by health care employees will not impair their position as an employee in a health care facility. In the Supreme Court case of Reeves v Sanderson Plumbing the Supreme Court decided that that in order for an employee to be allowed to have their discrimination case tried in front of a jury they do not

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