Investigations of Patients of Health Care Workers Infected with HIV: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Database

doi:10.1059/0003-4819-122-9-199505010-00002

Investigations of Patients of Health Care Workers Infected with HIV: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Database

From the National Center for Infectious Diseases and the National Center for Preventive Services of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia. Requests for Reprints: Laurie M. Robert, MS, Hospital Infections Program, Mailstop E-68, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333. Acknowledgments: The authors thank Robert Comer, Nancy Bringman Taylor, Audrey Smith Rogers, Paul Arnow, Russell Martin, William Wolverton, Paul Silverman, Richard Danila, Robert Scott, Jenice Longfield, Kevin Gipson, William Hall, Bob Greenlee, Kim Callanan, R. Lynn Browder, Bobby Jones, Gordon Dickinson, Don Conner, Rebecca Meriwether, M. Geoffrey Smith, Patricia Checko, Mary Lou Fleissner, Sean Flood, Perry Smith, Calvin Linnemann Jr., Karen Chapman, Harold Laswell, Stacey Bourgeois, Michael Heuer, Georgia Thomas, Ban Mishu Allos, Mark Miller, Karen Smalley, Ronald Altman, Rick Reich, James Cottone, John Weston, Beverly Dahan, Bryan Bartlett, Reginald Finger, Patricia Starr, Karen Adams, Shirley Crawshaw, Mark Bek, Kholoud Porter and Jeff Jones for supplying data; Penny McKibben for assistance with data management; and Sara Critchley for assistance with tables. Data from investigations in the United Kingdom and Australia were provided by the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London, and Sydney and New South Wales health authorities.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the risk for transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from an infected health care worker to patients.

Design: Survey of investigators from health departments, hospitals, and other agencies who had elected to notify patients who had received care from health care workers infected with HIV.

Measurements: Information was collected about infected health care workers, their work practices, their patients' HIV test results, procedures that they did on those of their patients who were tested for HIV, and patient notification procedures.

Results: As of 1 January 1995, information about investigations of 64 health care workers infected with HIV was reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; HIV test results were available for approximately 22 171 patients of 51 of the 64 health care workers. For 37 of the 51 workers, no seropositive patients were reported among 13 063 patients tested for HIV. For the remaining 14 health care workers, 113 seropositive patients were reported among 9108 patients. Epidemiologic and laboratory follow-up did not show any health care worker to have been a source of HIV for any of the patients tested.

Conclusion: Despite limitations, these data are consistent with previous assessments that state that the risk for transmission of HIV from a health care worker to a patient is very small. These data also support current recommendations that state that retrospective patient notification need not be done routinely.