15th International AIDS Conference Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. B10348)

Klewer J, Lauschke H, Sekula S, Guillen-Grima F, Aguinaga-Ontoso I, Tracogna U, Kugler J
Public Health, Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany

BACKGROUND: To prevent occupational HIV infections in health professionals, comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS is essential. Due to working close to infected patients, especially nursing staff is endangered. Therefore, the study tried to investigate how nursing staff from countries with different HIV prevalences assess the risk of occupational HIV-infections.

METHODS: In this multi-center-study the assessments by nursing staff from Germany, Namibia, Poland and Spain (n=529) on the risk of acquiring HIV in different clinical situations were analyzed by using standardized anonymous questionnaires.

RESULTS: The assessments on the HIV-transmission risks differed between the four samples. In general, the Namibian and the polish nurses overestimated the risk of HIV transmission in most situations (e.g. changing dirty linen, physical examination, dressing wounds). In most cases, the German and the Spanish nursing staff saw lower risks of contracting HIV than nurses from the both other samples.

CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate, that assessments on the risk of HIV transmission by nursing staff depends on the national HIV incidence. In countries like Namibia and Poland with emerging HIV incidences, nurses tend to see higher risks for contracting HIV even in clinical situations with unlikely risk of transmission. Nursing education should consider this and focus more on HIV/AIDS related aspects. By this, patient care improves and the infection risk of nursing staff will be reduced.

040711
B10348

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