Question

Can nurses who are HIV positive continue working?

4 April 2007. Related: All topics.

Should nurses who are HIV positive stop practicing? What about other health care providers?

Answer

Answer: Simon Collins

There is no reason why the HIV status of the vast majority of healthcare providers should have any impact on their job. There are HIV positive nurses, doctors, pharmacists, GPs and other healthcare workers, just as there are HIV positive cleaners, teachers, bus drivers, police officers and nearly every other trade and profession.

Exceptions for employment issues only occur when there is a direct risk of transmitting HIV and usually a risk of blood-to-blood contact. This is not the case for most nurses.

Examples where HIV status can be an issue in healthcare include surgeons and dentists, who could put a patient at risk for HIV (or hepatitis B or C, or TB) transmission.

An assessment of risks by healthcare job, including recommending whether different HIV-positive healthcare workers should treat patients in England is included in Annex B of the Department of Health booklet:
‘Health clearance for tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV: New healthcare workers’

A similar list for Scotland is at this link:
Scottish recommendations for HIV-positive healthcare workers

There are plenty of examples of HIV positive nurses and doctors, and no reported cases of this leading to HIV transmission to HIV-negative patients.