56
Vol. 66, No. 3 2015
Northeast Florida Medicine
CME
Preventing Transmission
to Health Care Personnel
Prevention, of MTCT or other types of transmission,
is the best approach. In the same spirit, prevention of
transmission to health care personnel (HCP) is important.
Following the recommended infection control policies is
key. HCP should follow standard universal precautions
for all patients. All blood and body fluids should be con-
sidered infectious and handled accordingly. All exposures
must be reported and documented. This is important for
protection of the HCP who may benefit from preventive
antiretroviral protocols.
Conclusion
The solution to the HIV epidemic worldwide is a safe
and effective vaccine. Unfortunately the field of HIV
vaccinology has been fraught with more failures than
successes. Although, each of these failures has guided
the path to developing a safe and effective vaccine, prog-
ress has been slow and a vaccine remains elusive. Other
prevention modalities such as condoms, diaphragms
and microbicides have been available for years and offer
significant protection for preventing HIV transmission,
but they have not been very easy to implement. More
recently, there has been success with the use of post-ex-
posure prophylaxis (PEP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis
(PrEP) in the prevention of HIV transmission. None of
the discussed modalities are perfect and require the at-risk
person to proactively seek these modalities of prevention
before or after an at-risk encounter making them less than
optimum. A vaccine remains the best hope.
v
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2. Connor EM, Sperling RS, Gelber R, et al. Reduction of
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3. CDC:
en/facts/ (accessed June 16, 2015)
4. Chasela CS, Hudgens MG, Jamieson DJ, et al. Maternal
or infant antiretroviral drugs to reduce HIV-1 transmis-
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aids/surveillance/fact-sheet1.html
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