英国将取消艾滋病人从医资格禁令

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.

英国的艾滋病病毒(HIV)感染者不久后有望从事外科医生或牙医的工作。

英国卫生部希望取消目前的禁令，并表示这是因为这样做对病人的风险“非常低”。

目前，HIV病毒阳性的医护人员被禁止从事大部分外科或牙科治疗，以防他们使用仪器时割破皮肤，导致血液传染。

但他们可以成为非专科医生、住院医生、护士、或助产士，并开展几乎所有的相关日常工作，包括被认为风险很低的注射。

但英国卫生部希望取消这一禁令，原因是医护人员感染病人的几率“可以忽略不计”。

据英国卫生部开展的调查，医生、牙医、或外科医生将HIV病毒传染给病人的风险还不到500万分之一，和雷击致死的几率类似。

官员表示，如能确保所有感染病毒的医护人员服用药物，以减少病毒数量，他们就很难把病毒传给别人，这一风险就可以进一步降低。

英国国家医疗服务体系中有110名第一线的医护人员是HIV病毒感染者，他们将因禁令取消而受益。

自2006年以来，直接接触病人的所有医护人员都必须验血，检查是否感染HIV病毒。

英国政府表示，目前英国还没有医护人员将HIV病毒传染给病人的案例，但在国外曾发生过。

在美国，一位携带HIV病毒的牙医曾感染六名病人；西班牙的一位妇科医生传染了一位女性。在法国，一位护士和一名整形外科医生各自都传染了一名病人。

英国卫生部昨天针对取消禁令的建议展开咨询，并将在未来几周内收集来自各组织和公众的反馈。

按照该建议，感染HIV病毒的医护人员必须接受“联合抗逆转录病毒治疗”，以减少体内病毒数量，避免传染。在可以从事外科治疗和其他医护工作前，他们还必须接受体内病毒数量检测，确保病毒数量很低。