Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies has announced that outdated rules designed to combat the threat of AIDS in the 1980s, when attitudes were very different and risks were less understood, will be modernised in line with the most recent science.
The changes mean that:
• People will be able to buy HIV self-testing kits once the kits comply with regulations.
• Doctors, nurses and other skilled healthcare workers with HIV who are undergoing treatment will be able to take part in certain medical procedures from which they are currently banned
Up to 100,000 people have HIV in the UK but around a quarter are living with it undiagnosed. These changes will give people more choice on how to get tested and therefore get treatment earlier, which will reduce the risk of new HIV infections. Following independent scientific advice, the Department of Health will lift the ban on healthcare workers with HIV being able to carry out certain dental and surgical procedures. Strict rules on treatment, monitoring and testing will be in place to safeguard patients. There have been just four cases of clinicians infecting patients reported worldwide and the last of these was more than a decade ago. Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust (NAT) said: “We welcome these changes to the guidance on HIV positive healthcare workers undertaking exposure-prone procedures and the removal of the ban on self-testing as we believe it is vitally important that policies are based on up-to-date scientific evidence and not on fear, stigma or outdated information. “Allowing healthcare workers living with HIV to undertake exposure-prone procedures corrects the current guidance which offers no more protection for the general public but keeps qualified and skilled people from working in the career they had spent many years training for. We know people are already buying poor quality self-testing kits online which is why NAT have campaigned for a change in the law. Legalisation is an important step to ensure they are regulated, accurate and safe.”
Photo Credit: CDC/A. Harrison, P. Feorino; E.L. Palmer
