Abstract

Recent court decisions imposing liability on physicians who fail to inform patients that they carry the human immunodeficiency virus before performing invasive procedures create an urgent need for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reopen the issuance of guidelines and to address authoritatively the question of the appropriate limits within which HIV-infected health care providers can treat patients.Public fear of HIV-infected physicians were kindled by reports, beginning in 1990, that Dr. David Acer, an HIV-infected dentist, had infected a number of his patients. However, great skepticism has arisen as to whether Dr. Acer’s patients were infected as a result of procedures conducted in accordance with universal precautions against transmission. Moreover, look back studies have failed to identify even one patient, among the thousands who have undergone procedures administered by HIV-infected physicians, who contracted the virus directly from his/her physician.