The risk of AIDS via needle prick injuries was exaggerated by Andre⁄ Picard ("A tiny pinprick, a deadly outcome" December 1, 2003, page A1,A6). According to Health Canada, there have only been 6 cases of AIDS due to occupational exposure in Canada over a time where there have probably been well over one million needle prick injuries.[1] Limited information has been published, but in the first case, an elderly woman, the conclusion was drawn not from positive evidence, but by the elimination of all other possible explanations. The possibility of false positive test results was not considered.
In the United States, with almost a million AIDS cases diagnosed, the CDC no longer bothers to report the number of health care workers with documented transmission of HIV (let alone AIDS).[2] Up to 1997, the last year this information was reported, only 25 cases of AIDS out of 633,000 had been blamed on documented occupational transmission. There was not a single case among paramedics and surgeons, two groups most likely to have uncontrolled exposures to HIV-positive blood.
Health care workers who are exposed to blood that is suspected to be HIV-positive are treated with drugs that have potentially fatal consequences. One US health care worker had a life-threatening allergic reaction,[4] and another required a liver transplant after post-exposure prophylaxis, for example.[5]
The case of Brenda Tippett, and others like it, are certainly unfortunate, but she may well be suffering from drug-induced injury, not from HIV and Hepatitis C.
References:
[1] HIV and AIDS in Canada: Surveillance report to December 31, 2002. Health Canada. 2003 Apr.
[2] HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report; U.S. HIV and AIDS cases reported through December 2001. CDC. 2002; 13(2).
[3] HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report (through December 1997). CDC. 1998; 9(2).
[4] Johnson S et al. Adverse Effects Associated With Use of Nevirapine in HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis for 2 Health Care Workers [first case]. JAMA. 2000 Dec 6.
[5] Sha BE et al. Adverse Effects Associated With Use of Nevirapine in HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis for 2 Health Care Workers [second case]. JAMA. 2000 Dec 6; 284(21): 2723.
