Occupational Risk of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome among Health Care Workers

Abstract

In August 1983, we initiated nationwide prospective surveillance of health care workers with documented parenteral or mucous-membrane exposures to blood or other body fluids of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or AIDS-related illnesses. The purpose of the surveillance project is to quantitate prospectively the risk to health care workers of acquiring the AIDS virus, human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type lll/lymphadenopathy-associated virus (HTLV-III/LAV), as a result of occupational exposures. By December 31, 1985, 938 health care workers were being followed in the surveillance project. The mean length of follow-up was 15 months (range, 0 to 56) and 531 health care workers (57 percent) had been followed for more than one year. Needlestick injuries and cuts with sharp instruments accounted for 76 percent of the exposures. Over 85 percent of all exposures were to blood or serum.