"Dentists have a legal obligation to treat HIV-infected
individuals, including patients of record and other persons who seek
treatment when the office is accepting new patients. Under the Americans
with Disabilities Act (AwDA) and many similar federal, state and local
laws, a person with HIV is considered as having a "disability," as are
persons who are perceived to have HIV, which may include patients who
have had blood transfusions and openly homosexual patients. at should be
noted that HIV is only one of many infectious diseases that are
considered as disabilities under the AwDA and similar laws; e.g.,
hepatitis B and tuberculosis are also treated as disabilities). In a
case decided shortly before the publication of this text, the first
federal court ruling on a charge of HIV discrimination against a dentist
upheld the constitutionality of the AwDA.
The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 is a federal law that
protects persons with disabilities, including individuals with HIV
and/or AIDS, from discrimination on the basis of their HIV and/or AIDS
status, including discrimination in the provision of dental care. ff you
feel you have been discriminated against in the provision of dental care
because of your HIV and/or AIDS status, you should call the Department
of Justice in Washington, D.C. at 1-800-514-0301." Dental Management
of the HIV-Infected Patient
|
AIDS and Confidentiality Contact Tracing and "Duty to inform"
|
Contact tracing in the context of STDs before HIV relied on the
patient's cooperation and this cooperation was secured by the fact
that the anonymity of the index patient (that is, the patient who is
to serve as the reference point for all contact traces - the one in
the doctor ís office) would be preserved. The people being notified
would then be able to begin treatment. In the initial stages of the
AIDS epidemic, several facts about HIV led to the opposition of
contact tracing; namely, the fact that it was untreatable in the
early stages (and ultimately incurable) and the fact that it was
initially spread most commonly by homosexual contact. Thus the
battle began between invasion of privacy vs. potential benefit. |
|
|
An Assessment of Hepatitis C Virus Knowledge, Attitudes and
Practices among Primary Care Providers in Maine |
89% of PCPs are currently seeing fewer than 10 Hepatitis C Virus patients and 74% have
seen fewer than 10 Hepatitis C Virus patients in the past 3 years. |
|
|
Are
Pharmaceutical companies Addressing-stigma |
Recommends that
treatment efficacies be made known to the public in efforts that
model the public relations and marketing communication practices of
other healing disciplines |
Pdf 270 kb |
|
Attitudes to & management of HIV/AIDS among health workers
in Ghana: the case of Cape Coast municipality |
Health Care Workers as key players in the prevention and
management of diseases and important opinion and community leaders
have become targets for studies, more so with the outbreak of HIV.
Their perceptions, attitudes and practices have implications for the
management of diseases in both health centres and communities. |
39 kb pdf |
|
Bioethics: Palliative Care at Home: Reflections on HIV/AIDS Family
Care giving Experiences |
This study
explored the day-to-day experiences of family members providing care
at home for their dying loved one with HIV/AIDS. In-depth interviews
with seven caregivers were analyzed using grounded theory
qualitative methods. A conceptualization of the family caregiving
experience portrays HIV/AIDS caregiving as an intense, emotional,
and powerful experience filled with pride and enrichment, and
conversely, with anger and disillusionment. |
|
|
Cure versus care
|
The term 'Quality
of Life' is often heard... and said at the Hospice to remind us of
our main aim and purpose. As most of our patients have been
diagnosed with a terminal disease, further treatment is often
inappropriate and cure is not always an option. |
|
|
Death a Result of Insufficient Care
|
Poor staffing was
the reason cited for the death of Mike Hurewitz, the living liver
donor at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, who died after a portion of
his liver was transplanted into his brother. |
|
|
Dental Management of the HIV-Infected Patient
|
Because the law
is evolving and varies in some respects from state to state,
dentists are advised to consult with their own personal attorneys
for legal advice. That said, the easiest way to avoid legal problems
- and to lessen the need for legal advice - is for dentists to treat
HIV-infected patients just like they treat their other patients.
|
|
|
Dentists shun HIV
patients |
Many dentists are refusing to treat people with HIV even
though there is no risk of transmitting the disease if safety
procedures are correctly followed. Experts have warned that
continuing discrimination may force people with HIV to keep their
condition hidden - which could cause problems if dentists fail to
take adequate care.
Research conducted by BBC News Online found seven out of
30 dentists contacted refused to commit to treating a person with
HIV. |
|
|
Discriminatory Attitudes and Practices by Health Workers toward
Patients with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria |
Nigeria has an
estimated 3.6 million people with HIV/AIDS and is home to one out of
every 11 people with HIV/AIDS worldwide. This study is the first
population-based assessment of discrimination against people living
with HIV/AIDS in the health sector of a country. The purpose of this
study was to characterize the nature and extent of discriminatory
practices and attitudes in the health sector and indicate possible
contributing factors and intervention strategies. The study involved
a cross-sectional survey of 1,021 Nigerian health-care professionals
(including 324 physicians, 541 nurses, and 133 midwives identified
by profession) in 111 health-care facilities in four Nigerian
states. |
|
|
Discriminatory Attitudes and Practices by Health Workers toward
Patients with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria |
Nigeria has an
estimated 3.6 million people with HIV/AIDS and is home to one out of
every 11 people with HIV/AIDS worldwide. This study is the first
population-based assessment of discrimination against people living
with HIV/AIDS in the health sector of a country. The purpose of this
study was to characterize the nature and extent of discriminatory
practices and attitudes in the health sector and indicate possible
contributing factors and intervention strategies. The study involved
a cross-sectional survey of 1,021 Nigerian health-care professionals
(including 324 physicians, 541 nurses, and 133 midwives identified
by profession) in 111 health-care facilities in four Nigerian
states. |
Pdf 522 kb |
|
Do people with HIV/AIDS disclose their HIV-positivity to dentists? |
Not disclosing
one’s HIV status to the dentist, though, can have serious
consequences, such as finding oneself deprived of care adapted to
one’s state of health, whether it be because of a lack of systematic
screening for oral lesions associated with HIV infection, an error
in diagnosis, an inappropriate choice of treatment, or a risk of
secondary infection related to certain treatments. |
66 kb pdf |
|
Doctors' and Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes
|
This report
presents responses to AIDS-related questions from a national sample
of 958 physicians and 1,520 registered nurses in 1990-91. Questions
included willingness to treat AIDS patients and whether they believe
that they were professionally obligated and should be legally
required to do so, attitudes toward homosexual men and intravenous
drug users, knowledge about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)
transmission, perceptions of the risk of HIV contagion,
precautionary practices, trust in HIV authorities, career plans, and
attitudes toward mandatory testing and mandatory reporting.
|
|
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Effect of Training Program on Physicians' Attitudes towards
knowledge and Practice Patterns Related to Assessment and Screening
of Clients with HIV/AIDS |
it does point out
that a training program can alter physicians' screening and testing
practices as well as their attitudes towards clients with HIV/AIDS.
This has implications for providers in remote rural areas or in
medically underserved communities where access to formalized
continuing education may be limited or offered at times not
compatible with a busy practice. |
|
|
Effect of Training Program on Physicians' Attitude Towards Knowledge
and Practice Related to Assessment and Screening of Clients with
HIV/AIDS |
This is a study which examines the effects of an educational program
on Hispanic physicians' attitudes towards and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
The study also examines physicians' practice patterns related to the
screening and testing of Hispanic patients at risk for the disease.
A one on one educational program was taken to the physician's office
at a time convenient to the physician. A pre- and post-test design
is used with questionnaires developed for the study that assess
self-reported data related to physicians' attitudes, knowledge and
practice patterns. A convenient sample of physicians participated.
This limited the generalizability of the results to other groups.
However, it does point out that a training program can alter
physicians' screening and testing practices as well as their
attitudes towards clients with HIV/AIDS |
|
|
Effects of Hospital Staffing and Organizational Climate on
Needlestick Injuries to Nurses |
Nurses from units
with low staffing and poor organizational climates were
generally twice as likely as nurses on well-staffed and
better-organized units to report risk factors, needlestick
injuries, and near misses. |
|
|
Expectations and social interactions of children with and without
mental retardation. |
Mentally retarded
and nonretarded perceiver children (n = 40) conversed by telephone
with a child who was described as a special or regular
education student. Perceivers reported that special and
regular education telephone partners behaved differently
during the conversation even though observers who were unaware of
how telephone partners had been described did not detect behavioral
differences between them. These same observers did detect
differences in stereotype related social behaviors of mentally
retarded and nonretarded perceivers, but only when perceivers
thought they were speaking to a regular education student.
Observer ratings also suggested that nonretarded perceivers "talked
down" to special education telephone partners. These
results suggest that stereotypes about children with and without
learning problems may become self-fulfilling prophecies by altering
how children treat one another and by affecting how they interpret
each other's behaviors. |
|
|
Factors associated with refusal to treat HIV-infected patients: the
results of a national survey of dentists in Canada |
This study
investigated dentists refusal to treat patients who have HIV.
METHODS: A survey was mailed to a random sample of all licensed
dentists in Canada, |
|
|
Factors related to staff stress in HIV/AIDS related palliative care |
Staff stress in HIV related palliative care has been identified as
an important problem worldwide. This study aimed at estimating
prevalence of staff stress and its correlates in a sample of
palliative caregivers in HIV/AIDS in India. |
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|
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Federal Appeals Court Rules In Landmark Case That Health Care
Workers Cannot Refuse To Treat People With HIV |
In
the first case of its kind to reach a federal appeals court, the
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [on March 6]
set a new precedent that it is illegal under the federal Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) for a dentist to refuse to treat a
patient with HIV based on the fear of transmission from a patient to
a dentist. The decision is also the first federal appellate ruling
to establish that people with HIV who do not have symptoms are
protected from discrimination under the ADA in employment, public
services, and public accommodations. The Court ruled against a
dentist in Bangor, Maine, Randon Bragdon, D.M.D., who had a written
policy of refusing to treat any patient with HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS |
|
|
Guidance on Management and Patient Notification HIV Infected Health
Care Workers |
The document reflects the new policy on patient notification
exercises when a health care worker is found to be infected with
HIV, which was announced in November 2001. It follows expert advice
from the Expert Advisory Group on AIDS (EAGA) and UK Advisory Panel
for Health Care Workers Infected with Blood-borne Viruses (UKAP).
They advise that it is no longer necessary to notify every patient
who has undergone an exposure prone procedure by an HIV infected
health care worker because of the low risk of transmission and the
anxiety caused to patients and the wider public. However, the
long-standing restriction on HIV infected health care workers
carrying out exposure prone procedures remains. |
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GUIDELINES for HIV/AIDS interventions in emergency settings |
During a crisis, the effects of poverty, powerlessness and social
instability are intensified, increasing people’s vulnerability to
HIV/AIDS. As the emergency and the epidemic simultaneously progress,
fragmentation of families and communities occurs, threatening stable
relationships. The social norms regulating behaviour are often
weakened. In such circumstances, women and children are at increased
risk of violence, and can be forced into having sex to gain access
to basic needs such as food, water or even security. Displacement
may bring populations, each with different HIV/AIDS prevalence
levels, into contact. This is especially true in the case of
populations migrating to urban areas to escape conflict or disaster
in the rural areas. |
Pdf 525 kb |
|
Guidelines for National Human Immunodeficiency Virus Case
Surveillance, Including Monitoring for Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Infection and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
|
CDC recommends
that all states and territories conduct case surveillance for human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection as an extension of current
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) surveillance activities.
The expansion of national surveillance to include both HIV infection
and AIDS cases is a necessary response to the impact of advances in
antiretroviral therapy, the implementation of new HIV treatment
guidelines, and the increased need for epidemiologic data regarding
persons at all stages of HIV disease. |
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|
Healthcare
Workers |
By the end of the
20th century, 33.6 million men, women and children had
been infected with HIV. AIDS is clearly one of the greatest public
health challenges of the era and, whilst there are continuous calls
for a multisectoral response to the epidemic, there is abundant
evidence that that response must, in most instances, be led by
dedicated, committed health care workers |
Pdf 431 kb |
|
Hepatitis C a Greater Threat to Healthcare Workers Than HIV
|
The risk that
healthcare workers will become infected with hepatitis C virus (Hepatitis C Virus)
following an accidental needlestick is 20 to 40 times greater than
their risk of HIV infection, according to data presented here at the
International Conference on Emerging Infectious Disease.
|
|
|
Hepatitis C from Gammagard®, An Intravenous Immunoglobulin [IGIV]
|
In February, 1994
Baxter Healthcare Corporation withdrew from world markets Gammagard®,
an immunoglobulin administered intravenously to those with acquired
or congential immune disorders, after 112 people in the U.S. were
reported having symptoms of hepatitis C, the most fatal form of the
this liver disease. |
|
|
Hepatitis C: Knowledge,
Attitudes and Practices among Orthopedic trainee surgeons |
Only 16% of the surgical residents
knew that there was a vaccine for hepatitis A. Though 84% knew that
there was no vaccine for hepatitis C, the majority (56%) were unaware
that Hepatitis C Virus was a sexually transmitted disease and 82% did not know about
the possibility of it being transmitted perinatally |
|
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Hepatitis C virus-infected patients (41%) report communication
problems with physicians |
"...The current study demonstrated that more than one-third of
patients diagnosed with HCV infection perceived interaction
difficulties with physicians. Nearly one-half of the patients with
conflict reported being misdiagnosed or inadequately treated and
questioned the competence of their physicians. In addition, patients
perceived negative attitudes and a feeling of disrespect from their
physicians. This led to a feeling of being stigmatized, mistreated,
or abandoned in more than one-fifth of those reporting such
difficult interactions....." |
|
|
Hepatitis C: a review of Australia’s response
|
"The newly
diagnosed person also has to make decisions about who to tell about
the diagnosis and to be aware of the possible consequences. Many
report feeling isolated, ‘permanently scarred’ or ‘tainted’. People
living with hepatitis C live with fears, myths and misinformation
about the disease and with the projected anxieties of others."
"Discrimination, or the potential for it, is often reported.
Hepatitis C has acquired the label ‘the drug addict’s disease’, thus
adding to the stigma attached to a communicable disease.
Discrimination can occur in social networks and in institutional
settings such as schools, hospital, health and dental clinics, and
child-care facilities, affecting access to services." |
|
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HIV Patients Perceive Discrimination
by Physicians |
One in four
HIV-infected adults reported that they had experienced
discrimination by a healthcare provider, with more than half citing
their physicians as offenders, according to a large nationally
representative study. |
|
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HIV/AIDS EMPLOYMENT POLICY AND PROCEDURE |
The NHS in Wales recognises that as an employer and a public health
body it has a duty to counter discrimination and stigma against
people who are or may become HIV positive or who have AIDS. This
duty includes employees of Local Health Boards. It recognises the
need to protect patients, to retain public confidence, and to
provide safeguards for the confidentiality and employment rights of
HIV infected health care workers. |
Pdf 23 kb |
|
HIV/AIDS
and cultural issues |
Health professionals, including medical students, have to learn to
face and fight HIV and AIDS and deal with its medical and
psychosocial effects. In combating the disease and the stigma that
surrounds it, education remains the best approach. |
539 kb pdf |
|
How Stigma Interferes With Mental
Healthcare |
The advocacy world is not in favor of the term "stigma" because it
suggests that the social wrong is in the person. I would not throw
away the word "stigma." I would argue with caution that people who
are stigmatized have some social cues that signal to the rest of the
world. Sometimes they are fairly obvious social cues, such as skin
color or other body characteristics. Other people don't have an
obvious mark but are labeled once they come out, and they tend to
have all the problems with stigma. An example is gay people. We
can't tell if someone is gay by looking at them, only if someone
points the person out. Religious background, level of education, and
history of being in prison are all things you can't tell unless the
person comes out. |
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If we don’t do it, who will? |
It
is vital that we adjust to the changing face of dental practice,
and learn to manage extraoral health issues with skill and
aplomb. |
|
|
International Red Cross Launches Campaign Against Stigma of
AIDS |
The international
Red Cross announced Monday that it is
launching a new campaign to tackle the stigma and discrimination
faced by people with HIV/AIDS - prejudice that it says stokes the
worldwide epidemic. |
|
|
Issues of Racism in Healthcare Research
|
Decreasing health
disparities and improving health services for minority and at-risk
populations is one of the goals of the Department of Health and
Human Services (DHHS) Healthy People 2010 initiative.
However, the racism imbedded within American society, as evident
through differences in areas such as socioeconomic status, living
conditions, and educational opportunity, may be inadequately
addressed in both medical and nursing research. |
|
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JACHO: Delays in treatment
|
While hospital
Emergency Departments (EDs) are the source of just over one-half of
all reported sentinel event cases of patient death or permanent
injury due to delays in treatment, |
|
|
JAMA: The Role of Law and Litigation
|
An important
subset of litigation relates to HIV/AIDS in the public health and
health care systems, since the law affects health care institutions
and professionals, patients, and public health policy in America.
This subset of HIV/AIDS litigation includes testing and reporting;
privacy, the duty to warn, and the right to know; physician
standards of care in prevention and treatment; and discrimination
and access to health care |
|
|
Knowledge and attitudes of dental patients towards cross-infection
control measures in Dental Practice |
Transmission of
infection within a dental surgery may occur by direct contact of tissue
with secretions or blood, from droplets containing infectious agent, or
via contaminated sharps or instruments which have been improperly
sterilized. The major route of cross infection in dental surgery is via
infection through intact skin or mucosa due to accidents involving
sharps, or direct inoculation onto cuts and abrasions in the skin |
|
|
Lessons From the SARS Epidemic |
The current hysteria over the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
epidemic recalls Harry Truman's observation that "there is nothing new
in the world except the history you don't know." Although a recent
phenomenon, SARS has more in common with epidemics of the past than most
people realize. |
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|
Los Angeles hospital van spotted dumping
paraplegic man on street |
A
hospital van dropped off a homeless paraplegic man on Skid Row and
left him crawling in the street with nothing more than a soiled gown
and a broken colostomy bag, police said. |
|
|
Medical Methadone Maintenance: The Further
Concealment of a Stigmatized Condition |
While Dole and Nyswander were implementing their research, sharp and
acidic criticism was directed at them from various professional and
governmental interests. This early criticism has not abated, extends
the prejudice associated with heroin addiction and is the foundation
for the stigma that now encompasses methadone treatment |
|
|
National Surveillance of Dialysis-Associated Diseases in the United
States, 1997 |
Incidence and
types of infections among patients and staff |
117 kb pdf |
|
Needlestick prevention bill includes new workplace rules
|
Each year 600,000
to 800,000 health care workers, including many physicians, are
accidentally stuck by contaminated needles or other sharp objects. A
bill that recently passed Congress aims to reduce that number.
|
|
|
New guidelines: clinicians should incorporate HIV
prevention into ongoing care of patients |
CDC
issued new guidelines that shift prevention education initiatives to
those already infected. One policy is to try to reach the
infected community during routine visits to their healthcare
providers. The stigma of HIV/AIDS prevents many people from
disclosing their diagnosis, and often healthcare providers are the
only people with whom they can talk openly about the disease. |
132 kb pdf |
|
New Postexposure Protocol for Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne
Diseases |
From a recent
study showing that zidovudine prophylaxis after percutaneous
exposure to HIV can reduce the risk of seroconversion by almost 80
percent, |
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Nurses: Fighting AIDS Stigma Caring for All
|
Stigma and
discrimination block the march forward against HIV/AIDS. They fuel
the HIV/AIDS epidemic by creating a culture of secrecy, silence,
ignorance, blame, shame and victimization. Stigma prevents
communities from addressing HIV/AIDS with the appropriate health
care services or legal and educational strategies. What stops them
is HIV prejudice. And all that will stop HIV prejudice is speaking
openly about the facts |
182 kb pdf
|
|
Occupationally Acquired HIV: The Vulnerability of Health Care
Workers under Workers ' Compensation Laws |
Approximately 800
000 needle-sticks and other sharp injuries from contaminated medical
devices occur in health care settings each year, of which an
estimated 16000 are contaminated by human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV). Health care workers who are Occupationally infected by HIV
are at risk of being left without workers' compensation coverage. In
some states, the definition of an occupational disease is so
restrictive that infected health care workers are unlikely to
qualify for benefits. For those who are able to meet the definition,
compensation is often inadequate. |
|
|
On Stigma and its Public Health Implications
|
One of the
curious features of literature concerning stigma is the variability
that exists in the definition of the concept. In many circumstances
investigators provide no explicit definition and seem to refer to
something like the dictionary definition ("a mark of disgrace") or
to some related aspect like stereotyping or rejection (e.g. a social
distance scale). When stigma is explicitly defined many commentators
turn to Goffman quoting his definition of stigma as an "attribute
that is deeply discrediting" and that reduces the bearer "from a
whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one". |
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|
Patients of Brooklyn Clinic Are Sought After Outbreak of
Hepatitis C |
The infected
patients all underwent endoscopic exams, in which a flexible lighted
instrument is used to inspect the stomach or bowel lining, over a
three- to four-day period at the end of March at the Bay Ridge
Endoscopy and Digestive Health Center |
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PHENOMENOLOGY |
Phenomenology is
a movement in philosophy that has been adapted by certain
sociologists to promote an understanding of the relationship between
states of individual consciousness and social life. As an approach
within sociology, phenomenology seeks to reveal how human awareness
is implicated in the production of social action, social situations
and social worlds |
|
|
Philadelphia Settles Lawsuit Over Alleged Discrimination Against
HIV-Positive Man by EMTs |
The city of Philadelphia on Monday settled a civil-rights lawsuit
over alleged discrimination against an HIV-positive man who said
that city emergency medical technicians provided inappropriate care
after they leaned his HIV status |
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|
Predictors of Mother-Adolescent Discussions About Condoms:
Implications for Providers Who Serve Youth
|
Parents who
communicate effectively about sexuality and safer sex behaviors can
influence their adolescents' risk-taking behavior. Health care
providers, particularly physicians, can facilitate this
communication by providing to parents information about the sexual
behavior of adolescents, the risks that adolescents encounter,
condom use, condom effectiveness, and how to discuss condoms. They
also can make referrals to programs that teach communication skills.
|
|
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Red Cross Failing Blood Test
|
The risk of
contaminated blood is one reason why the Food and Drug
Administration is going to the mat with the Red Cross, which
provides half of the nation's blood supply and has been violating
blood safety laws for17 years. |
|
|
Reducing AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination in Indian Hospitals
|
AIDS-related stigma and discrimination is a pervasive problem
worldwide. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in India, as
elsewhere, face stigma and discrimination in a variety of contexts,
including the household, community, workplace, and health care
setting. Research in India has shown that stigma and discrimination
against HIV-positive people and those perceived to be infected are
common in hospitals and act as barriers to seeking and receiving
critical treatment and care services (UNAIDS 2001). |
Pdf 342 kb |
|
Response to consultation on Aids/HIV infected health care workers
|
This guidance will have the effect of restricting the occasions on
which it is considered necessary to notify patients that they may
have been at risk of exposure to the HIV virus. This reflects the
evidence which shows that in the UK there has been no recorded case
of infection passing from a healthcare worker to a patient, and only
two reported incidents worldwide. The NHS therefore seeks to reduce
the possibility of anxiety, and the costs of unnecessary counselling
and testing for the virus, in situations in which the risk of
infection is considered to be very low. Previously, all patients in
the UK have been notified regardless of their level of risk. The new
policy is designed to avoid unnecessary anxiety to patients and puts
Britain more in line with practice in other countries. From now on
the risk of HIV transmission to patients will be assessed on a case
by case basis and whether patients are notified will depend on the
level of risk |
Pdf 41 kb |
|
Risk and Management of Blood-Borne Infections in Health Care Workers
|
Exposure to
blood-borne pathogens poses a serious risk to health care workers (HCWs).
We review the risk and
management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus
(HBV), and hepatitis C virus (Hepatitis C Virus) infections in HCWs and also
discuss current methods for preventing exposures and recommendations
for postexposure prophylaxis. In the health care setting,
blood-borne pathogen transmission occurs predominantly by
percutaneous or mucosal exposure of workers to the blood or body
fluids of infected patients. Prospective studies of HCWs have
estimated that the average risk for HIV transmission after a
percutaneous exposure is approximately 0.3%, the risk of HBV
transmission is 6 to 30%, and the risk of Hepatitis C Virus transmission is
approximately 1.8%.
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Risk of confidentiality breach can make HIV patients shy from
treatment |
"A
breach of confidentiality carries the potential for a greater
consequence on the lives of these patients than it may in many other
diagnoses, and so confidentiality has a deeper meaning for them,"
said Kathryn Whetten-Goldstein, assistant professor in the Terry
Sanford Institute of Public Policy's Center for Health Policy, Law
and Management and primary investigator for the study, which was
funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. "A perceived
risk of a breach of confidentiality can prompt an HIV patient to
choose a clinic several hours away rather than one closer to home,
to withhold information from providers or even to reject treatment
altogether." |
|
|
Sharing of Drug Preparation Equipment as a Risk Factor for Hepatitis
C |
Among injection
drug users who do not share syringes, an important proportion of Hepatitis C Virus
infections may be attributed to cooker/cotton sharing. |
|
|
Stigma and Global Health: Developing a Research Agenda
|
"Typically,
miners who are believed to be infected are shunned. They sit alone
in buses that carry workers to the pit. They eat alone in the
company kitchens because their colleagues are afraid to share
utensils or crockery with them." |
|
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Stigma Interventions and Research for International Health |
For public
health, however, a suitable framework requires a working definition
of stigma that recognizes the distinctive features of particular
diseases in particular social and cultural contexts. One or a
combination of various approaches to interventions may focus on
controlling or treating target health problems, countering
tendencies of those who stigmatize others, and supporting those who
are stigmatized. |
|
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STIGMATIZATION AND ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE IN LATIN
AMERICA: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES |
Stigma associated with mental illness produces a series of adverse
conditions that can result in exclusion in health. From the
perspective of health systems, however, this phenomenon has not been
widely studied. Hence the purpose of this study is to establish the
importance of stigma as a barrier to access to the health services,
and to identify ways to reduce exclusion in health due to stigma
that go beyond the protection of the rights of the individual and
place it within the framework of the extension of social protection
in health. |
Pdf 62 kb |
|
Structural Collapse Sets the Scene for the Rapid Spread of HIV/AIDS
Among Young People in Eastern Europe |
The number of HIV
infections in Eastern Europe has increased nine-fold in just three
years, growing from less than 30,000 HIV infections in 1995 to an
estimated 270,000 infections by December 1998. Ukraine has had the
most dramatic epidemic, with an estimated 110,000 people living with
HIV in December 1997, two-thirds of them injecting drug users. Since
then the epidemic has grown rapidly |
|
|
Study Fosters Patient-friendly Hospital Environment
|
As
the number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) continues to rise,
so do the demands on health care systems throughout the world.
Stigma and discrimination against PLHA are reported to be severe in
many public and private hospitals in India, a problem that is often
aggravated by insufficient training of health care workers, lack of
supplies to enact universal precautions, and inadequate policies.
|
|
|
The attitude of nurses to HIV/AIDS patients in a Nigerian University
Teaching Hospital |
“The revelation that perhaps up to four million Nigerians might have
contracted (the) AIDS virus should spur the country into some form
of coordinated action. Despite the havoc which HIV/AIDS has caused
throughout the world, particularly Africa, Nigerians have,
regrettably, continued to carry on as if nothing is happening. Many
people still maintain multiple sex partners and engage in casual and
unprotected sex. Our AIDS control strategy remains, at best,
unstructured, without direction. If the report that some people have
received blood infected with the virus is true, then there is danger
on the horizon. It only goes to show that AIDS screening is not
properly carried out in the country. Sadly, the problem has been
compounded by the fact that the disease is still being treated with
a less than honest approach by many Nigerians” (Daily Times 1997) |
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The Discriminatory Attitudes of Health Workers against People Living
with HIV
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The results suggest that some health-care professionals discriminate
against and stigmatise PLWA. For instance, 9% of professionals
reported refusing to care for a patient with HIV/AIDS, and 9%
reported that they refused a patient with HIV/AIDS admission to
hospital. Two-thirds reported observing other health professionals
refusing to care for a patient with HIV/AIDS, and 43% observed
others refusing a patient with HIV/AIDS admission to hospital. |
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The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Health Service Personnel |
Of those with a new job, 48% planned to work in the private sector,
and 37% planned to work elsewhere in the public sector. Exit
interview participants were also asked in a separate question about
the influence of HIV on their decision to leave, and 30% stated that
HIV had at least somewhat affected their decision to leave. |
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THE PSYCHIATRIC NOSOLOGY OF
EVERYDAY LIFE: CATEGORIES IN IMPLICIT
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY |
A basic
assumption of constructionism is that knowledge originates in social
interchanges. That is, people's everyday knowledge about "the way
things are" is not given by the real world but is the result of an
ongoing process of communication: People speak, write, and use signs
and symbols actively and cooperatively and end up creating "reality"
out of negotiated understandings. |
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VIOLENCE |
Today more than 5
million U.S. hospital workers from many occupations perform a wide
variety of duties. They are exposed to many safety and health
hazards, including violence. Recent data indicate that hospital
workers are at high risk for experiencing violence in the workplace.
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Violence
and Public Health |
The discussion was centred on the break
in confidence or trust of all institutions and that there is urgent
need of rebuilding partnerships to prevent societies from fighting
and breaking apart. |
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