Worker Health Chartbook 2004

Surveillance of Health Care Workers with AIDS

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) surveillance is conducted by CDC and collaborating health departments in each State, territory, and the District of Columbia. Although surveillance activities range from passive to active, most areas employ multifaceted active surveillance programs, including four major sources of AIDS information: hospitals and hospital-based physicians, physicians in nonhospital practice, public and private clinics, and medical record systems (death certificates, tumor registries, hospital discharge abstracts, and communicable disease reports). AIDS surveillance data are used to detect epidemiologic trends to identify unusual cases requiring follow-up and publish these trends in the semiannual publication in the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report [CDC 2001].

Of the adults reported with AIDS in the United States through December 31, 2002, 24,844 had been employed in health care. These cases represented 5.1% of the 486,826 AIDS cases reported to CDC for whom occupational information was known (information about employment in the health care setting was missing for 337,225 reported AIDS cases). The type of job is known for 23,212 (93%) of the 24,844 reported health care workers with AIDS. CDC is aware of 57 health care workers in the United States who have been documented as having seroconverted to HIV following occupational exposures [CDC 2003]. Twenty-six have developed AIDS. CDC is also aware of 139 other cases of HIV infection or AIDS among health care workers who have not reported other risk factors for HIV infection. They reported occupational exposure to blood, body fluids, or HIV-infected laboratory material, but seroconversion after exposure was not documented. The number of these workers who acquired their infection through occupational exposures is unknown.

For more information contact

Chief, Surveillance Branch
Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention—Surveillance and Epidemiology
National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road, NE, MS–E47
Atlanta, Georgia 30333
www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/nchstp.html
www.cdc.gov/hiv/surveillance.htm

Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk (SENSOR)

Surveillance for Tuberculosis (TB) Infection in Health Care Workers