Health Care Professionals and Aids

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.
             AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate. New patients are diagnosed with AIDS at a rate of more than 1,600 per day (Lyneis A1). There are approximately 38,000 to 45,900 United States health care workers that are infected with AIDS (Joseph). Many health care workers contract HIV from their patients and most were exposed through HIV infected blood. Health care providers in environments with large numbers of high-risk patients such as emergency departments, sexual transmitted disease (STD) clinics, methadone maintenance clinics and prison or jail clinics are in great danger of contracting HIV (Kuvin 75). Any occupation where there is direct contact with bodily fluids is considered a very hazardous occupation for contracting HIV because HIV can only be transmitted through certain bodily fluids. Any medical provider servicing victims of traumatic accidents can be considered a high-risk medical occupation (Arnow 274). Health care providers such as surgeons, obstetricians, and blood drive coordinators have a higher risk of contracting HIV. Health care providers who perform invasive procedures should monitor their HIV status regularly. In addition, if they test positive, they should seek advice about whether they need to limit their provider practice in order to protect their patients.
             3.
             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 need to have any direct evidence of discrimination (Signor 1B).