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CDC: Only one confirmed occupationally acquired HIV case reported since 1999
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From 1985 to 2013, there were 58 confirmed and 150 possible cases of HIV infection acquired occupationally by health care workers, according to a CDC report.
There has been only one confirmed case since 1999, in a lab technician who experienced a needle puncture while working with live HIV cultures in 2008, CDC investigators wrote in MMWR.
Among the 58 confirmed cases, 49 were the result of a percutaneous puncture or cut, and 49 of the HCWs were exposed to HIV-positive blood. Most of the confirmed cases were among nurses (n=24) and clinical lab technicians (n=16).
“CDC recommends the use of standard precautions to prevent exposure of HCWs to potentially infectious body fluids when working with any patient, whether known to be infected with HIV or not,” they wrote. “HCWs should assume that body fluids from all patients are infectious even if the patients are not known to be infected with HIV. Proper implementation of standard precautions minimizes exposure risk.”
Confirmed cases require documentation that seroconversion in the HCW is related to a specific exposure to a known HIV-positive source. HCWs are advised to report exposures immediately, and serostatus of the source and the HCW should be determined at the time of the exposure. HCWs who are exposed should receive counseling and be offered postexposure prophylaxis. Postexposure prophylaxis with ART has been recommended for occupational HIV exposure since 1996.
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