英國將取消艾滋病人從醫資格禁令

HIV sufferers could soon be able to work as surgeons or dentists.

The Department of Health wants to lift the current ban because it claims any risk to patients is ‘very low’.

Health workers who are HIV positive are banned from performing most surgery or dental treatment in case they cut themselves with their instruments and infect patients with their blood.

They can become GPs, hospital doctors, nurses or midwives and carry out nearly all day-to-day tasks, including giving injections, which are considered low risk.

But the Department of Health wants to lift the ban because it says the chance of a health worker infecting a patient is ‘negligible’.

It has undertaken research suggesting the risk of a patient catching HIV from their doctor, dentist or surgeon is less than one in five million, similar to that of being killed by lightning.

Officials say the risk can be further reduced by ensuring any infected member of staff takes medication to reduce their virus count, which means it cannot easily be passed on.

There are 110 frontline workers in the NHS with HIV who would be affected by the rule change.

Since 2006 all members of staff who deal with patients have had to undergo compulsory blood tests to check whether they have the virus.

The Government says there have so far been no recorded cases of patients in Britain catching HIV from a healthcare worker, although it has happened abroad.

In the US a dentist with HIV infected six patients, while a gynaecologist in Spain passed on the illness to one woman. And in France a nurse is known to have passed on the virus to one patient and an orthopaedic surgeon infected another.

The Department of Health launched a consultation yesterday on its proposals to lift the ban and in the next few weeks will gather feedback from organisations and the public.

Under the proposals, HIV-infected health workers would have to be given ‘combination antiretroviral drug therapy’ to reduce the virus count so it could not be transmitted. They would also have to undergo tests to check the virus count was low before they could perform surgery and other procedures.英國的艾滋病病毒(HIV)感染者不久後有望從事外科醫生或牙醫的工作。

英國衛生部希望取消目前的禁令，並表示這是因爲這樣做對病人的風險“非常低”。

目前，HIV病毒陽性的醫護人員被禁止從事大部分外科或牙科治療，以防他們使用儀器時割破皮膚，導致血液傳染。

但他們可以成爲非專科醫生、住院醫生、護士、或助產士，並開展幾乎所有的相關日常工作，包括被認爲風險很低的注射。

但英國衛生部希望取消這一禁令，原因是醫護人員感染病人的機率“可以忽略不計”。

據英國衛生部開展的調查，醫生、牙醫、或外科醫生將HIV病毒傳染給病人的風險還不到500萬分之一，和雷擊致死的機率類似。

官員表示，如能確保所有感染病毒的醫護人員服用藥物，以減少病毒數量，他們就很難把病毒傳給別人，這一風險就可以進一步降低。

英國國家醫療服務體系中有110名第一線的醫護人員是HIV病毒感染者，他們將因禁令取消而受益。

自2006年以來，直接接觸病人的所有醫護人員都必須驗血，檢查是否感染HIV病毒。

英國政府表示，目前英國還沒有醫護人員將HIV病毒傳染給病人的案例，但在國外曾發生過。

在美國，一位攜帶HIV病毒的牙醫曾感染六名病人；西班牙的一位婦科醫生傳染了一位女性。在法國，一位護士和一名整形外科醫生各自都傳染了一名病人。

英國衛生部昨天針對取消禁令的建議展開諮詢，並將在未來幾周內收集來自各組織和公衆的反饋。

按照該建議，感染HIV病毒的醫護人員必須接受“聯合抗逆轉錄病毒治療”，以減少體內病毒數量，避免傳染。在可以從事外科治療和其他醫護工作前，他們還必須接受體內病毒數量檢測，確保病毒數量很低。