Science / Medicine : AIDS Risk to Health Workers Low

Health care workers in the United States are not becoming infected with AIDS at abnormally high rates despite the risk inherent in their profession, researchers reported. As of June, 1990, health care workers accounted for 4.8% of the 137,385 adults and adolescents known to have acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the Centers for Disease Control said.

Health care workers consistently have made up 5% or less of AIDS cases each year and as such are not overrepresented among people with AIDS, said the study published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Assn. The agency also said that 94% of the health care workers who did have AIDS had risk factors, such as homosexual activity, intravenous drug use or blood transfusions, that were not related to their profession.