Hospitals, AIDS & you

Some people are afraid that they may catch AIDS while they are in hospital. This pamphlet explains what AIDS is and how it is spread. It explains that AIDS is very difficult to catch. It also explains how this hospital is working to make sure that all staff and patients are safe from AIDS.

What is AIDS?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

AIDS is a series of diseases caused by a virus called the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). If a person is infected with HIV, they may lose their ability to resist diseases like a rare kind of pneumonia and some kinds of cancer. When a person with HIV infection develops these diseases, they are diagnosed as having AIDS.

How is HIV spread?

HIV infection is very difficult to get. It cannot be spread through the air like a cold. It cannot be spread through toilets or bathrooms, through food, or through cutlery or crockery.

HIV is carried in body fluids like blood, semen or vaginal fluids, but a significant amount of fluids from an infected person have to get into your bloodstream before you can get infected.

In Australia, there are only three ways in which adults can be infected by HIV:

Unprotected sexual intercourse (anal or vaginal) with an infected person.
Entry of infected blood into a person?s blood stream (such as when sharing needles during injecting drug use).
Occasionally from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy, at birth, or via breast milk.

In Australia, HIV is most commonly transmitted by sexual intercourse without a condom, and through sharing needles, syringes and other injecting equipment by injecting drug users.

There is no evidence anywhere in the world that HIV is transmitted by ordinary social or family contact .

Can I get AIDS from a blood transfusion?

Since March 1985, all blood for transfusions has been screened for HIV.

Before HIV was discovered in 1984, a small number of people in Australia were infected with HIV through blood transfusions or other blood products.

Now, people at risk of HIV infection are forbidden by law to donate blood. The chance of being infected with HIV through a blood transfusion is extremely small.

Are there AIDS patients in this hospital?

There may be patients with HIV infection or AIDS in this hospital, but hospital staff follow very strict safety procedures to prevent infection to other patients and health care workers.

Don't hospital workers get AIDS through their work?

Around the world, a very small number of hospital workers have become infected with HIV, usually by accidentally sticking themselves with contaminated needles or other sharp instruments. There have been only two such cases of hospital workers in Australia becoming infected with HIV at work.

How do hospitals protect patients from HIV infection?

There is no recorded case anywhere in the world of a patient becoming infected with HIV through contact with an HIV-infected hospital worker.

In Australian hospitals, needles and syringes are used only once, and all other instruments are sterilised between uses.

All hospitals have strict safety procedures to prevent accidental HIV infections. Sometimes these procedures will require staff to wear gowns, gloves or eye glasses when carrying out some procedures with you. This applies particularly in emergency room situations, in operating rooms, and in birthing rooms. These are places where blood and other body fluids are present.

This does not mean the staff are infected, or that they think you are infected. Staff are following the strict guidelines that require them to treat all body fluids as though they might be infected. This is for everyone's protection.

Even if a nurse, doctor or health care worker has HIV, there are strict infection control guidelines that protect you from infection. Remember, HIV cannot be passed on through casual contact, or through things like washing a patient, changing a dressing, or giving an injection.

In Victoria, if a staff member has an accident involving your blood, you may be required to allow the hospital to test your blood for HIV and hepatitis B, so the staff member can be treated if they have been exposed to either of these viruses.

If you need further information about any of the matters discussed in this pamphlet, ask a doctor or other health care worker who understands about HIV/AIDS, or call AIDSLINE on (61 3) 9347 6099, 1800 133 392 or 1800 032 665 (TTY).