[HIV infection and nosocomial risk: experience at the ORL Clinic of Pisa].

The risk of nosocomial risk of HIV infection and the problem of preventative measures to adopt has been modifying how workers in the health field deal with patients. In fact, the increased spreading of HIV infections within our population has led to the establishment of a national protocol of preventative measures by which no patient can be considered "safe". Consequently, the likelihood that contact with any patient can lead to infection causes the health care worker to look upon the patient as a potentially dangerous enemy, thus leading to a decline in the quality of health care. On the other had, although the risk of a health care worker being infected by HIV during routine work is low, preventative measures must be taken both during examination and during surgery. Unanimous agreement exists in regard to what measures are to be taken to prevent cutaneous and mucosa exposure of workers whenever the risk of accidentally coming into contact with the blood and/or other biological fluids exists. On the other hand, the use of an anti-HIV screening for all patients in order to distinguish between infected and non infected subjects is still subject to debate. Some feel such screening is unacceptable because it would deny sero-positive patients adequate care and could give rise to both false positives and false negatives while others propose routine screening feeling it to be helpful both to those who are sero-positive and to health care workers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)