NHS staff infected with the Aids virus will be allowed to carry out operations and other invasive procedures for the first time.A ban which has been in place for more than 20 years is to be lifted by the Government, which says it will not put patient safety at risk.
The ban was imposed because of fears that if an Aids-infected surgeon or dentist cut themselves during certain types of operation, it could result in the patient becoming infected.
Surgeons, dentists, midwives and nurses with HIV will be able to work normally providing they are taking drugs that eradicate the virus in the bloods
tream.
In another move, from next year, people will be able to buy HIV self-testing kits that are currently illegal for home use.
England’s chief medical officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, said science had moved on and it was time to scrap ‘outdated rules’.
She said lifting the operating ban on healthcare staff would bring the UK into line with most other Western countries.
An estimated 110 staff working in the NHS would be affected by the change, based on the numbers of Britons with HIV.
From next April, anyone with HIV wanting to carry out surgical and dental procedures would have to go on a confidential register and have three-monthly testing to ensure they were complying with treatment.
Prof Davies said: ‘We’ve got outdated rules. At the moment we bar totally safe healthcare workers who are on treatment with HIV from performing many surgical treatments, and that includes dentists.’
She said modern anti-retroviral drugs enabled people with HIV to lead normal lives, adding: ‘With effective treatment, they are not infectious.’ The risk to patients was ‘absolutely negligible’.
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