Dentists, allied professionals with AIDS

Article Abstract:

A report is presented concerning health care workers with AIDS, with particular focus on dental workers. As of March 31, 1991, 171 dental workers with AIDS had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which maintains a national surveillance system for AIDS cases. This was part of the 6,436 health care workers reported to the CDC, who make up 4.8 percent of the 135,617 reported cases for whom occupations are known (the total number of reported cases was 168,913). AIDS must be reported in all 50 states and in all territories to local health departments which, in turn, send the information to the CDC. Case reports, without names, contain demographic information, information on the mode of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the virus associated with AIDS), and clinical data. Employment in health care or a clinical laboratory is noted. Health care workers with AIDS are of similar age and gender to non-health care workers with AIDS, but are more likely to be white or homosexual/bisexual, and are less likely to be intravenous drug users. Dental workers are even more likely to be homosexual or bisexual, and less likely to use intravenous drugs. Ninety-four percent of the health care workers with AIDS reported risks for exposure to HIV that were not related to their occupations. Half the workers had experienced needlesticks or contact between their mucous membranes or broken skin and blood or other body fluids within 10 years prior to diagnosis. However, whether such contact involved HIV-infected material is largely unknown. The prevalence of HIV infection among dental workers is low: in one study, 1 out of 1,309 dental professionals tested positive for HIV antibodies. Health screenings at meetings of the American Dental Association on three successive years, with over 1,100 dentists in attendance each time, yielded only two positive results (one in 1988 and one in 1989). Of course, such studies may be biased because HIV-infected people may not participate. As the number of HIV-infected people grows, precautions should be taken in the workplace to minimize the chances of transmission. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Demographic aspects, Diseases, Dental personnel

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Lack of evidence for patient-to-patient transmission of HIV in a dental practice

Article Abstract:

The risk of patient-to-patient transmission of HIV infection from contaminated dental instruments may be low. Five patients of a Florida dentist with AIDS were infected with HIV reportedly as the result of dentist-to-patient transmission. A study examined 185 patient and dental practice records from the office of the Florida dentist between Nov 1987 and Jul 1989. Two of four case patients were treated on the same day on four different occasions. The remaining case patient was never treated on the same day as any of the other patients. Certain dental instruments may have been used on both of the case patients treated on the same day. On 43 different occasions, 78 patients who were HIV-negative one year after the practice closed in 1989 were treated on the same day as one of the case patients. Some of the HIV-negative patients received treatments similar to those received by the case patients. The case patients were probably infected through direct exposure to the dentist's blood.

Health aspects, Disease transmission, Dental personnel and patient, Dental personnel-patient relations

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Rapid HIV testing in the dental setting

Article Abstract:

The reports of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in United States show that spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has decreased. The need for patient counseling before and after the HIV test is conducted is explained.

United States, Labor Distribution by Employer, Diagnosis, HIV (Viruses), HIV

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