The College Student, the Dentist, and the North Carolina Senator

Abstract

The risk of acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection from a health care worker is 2,000 times less than that of dying from a car accident. It is 700 times less probable than perishing from being struck by lightning or suffering a fatal fall. Despite the rarity of this occurrence, reduction of the risk of health-care-worker-to-patient HIV transmission in the workplace has been the focus of congressional, federal, state, and local agencies. If all HIV transmission from health care workers to patients were prevented using current guidelines and legislation, the epidemic of AIDS would be reduced by 0.0006% Current efforts to prevent HIV transmission from health care workers to patients are the result of incomplete risk analysis and management. In a society of limiting resources and of cherished freedoms, sanctions imposed on health care workers to prevent HIV transmission to patients may benefit no one. Key words: HIV; risk analysis; risk management; policy. (Med Decis Making 1996;16:86-91)