Government plans end to ban on HIV positive surgeons

A ban was placed on all healthcare workers found to be carrying the virus from working in specialities which involve invasive procedures 20 years ago. This included surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, dentistry and some aspects of midwifery and specialist nursing.

But the national guidelines have been reviewed in light of improved anti-retroviral treatments and because all the evidence shows that no patient in the UK has ever been infected by an HIV positive healthworker. Indeed, worldwide, there have only been four cases in total.

The announcement comes on World Aids Day, and on the 30th anniversary of the emergence of the virus and has been welcomed by Aids organisations and clinical groups such as the British Dental Association.

In a statement the BDA said: “There is no evidence to suggest that a practitioner with HIV poses any danger to the health of their patients providing appropriate precautions are taken.”

Restrictive rules

The UK has some of the strictest rules in the world with only Australia, Ireland, Italy and Malta imposing similar restrictions.

Now the Health Department is saying that the risk of HIV infection to any patient having the most invasive type of exposure-prone procedure, such as open heart surgery, has been estimated as about one in five millions, which is similar to the risk of being struck and killed by lightning.

Health workers will still face some restrictions including being tested every three months to check how much of the virus is detectable and they may have to be on anti-retroviral medication before they can go back into surgery or the dental clinic.

The Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies said that patient safety would always be their top priority but that knowledge and understanding and the treatment of HIV had all developed enormously over the past 25 years.

It is thought that there are about 110 healthcare workers with HIV in England who might currently be affected by the restrictions. It is unknown how many people were unable to pursue a medical career or whose career was brought to a halt by the rules.

Dr David Croser, who works for Dental Protection, and was one of the first dentists to set up a clinic for HIV patients, said there had been dentists who had been pushed out of their career. “Can you imagine being in that room and being told that you are HIV positive and then in the next breath being told you will have to stop working as a dentist?”

One dentist, who has not been named, is currently taking a case against the Health Department, claiming the ban is discriminatory and unlawful, and it is thought that this legal action may have also prompted the consultation.

Sir Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said today that far more was known now about transmission than when these rules were made.

The government’s consultation is due to end next March.

New US treatment goal

In the USA President Barack Obama marked the day by unveiling a plan to increase the number of Aids patients being treated to six million by the end of 2013, which is two million more than the current goal. Last year the global funding for HIV and Aids treatment was cut, prompting fears that the fight against the disease could be severely affected.