Valutazione del rischio professionale negli Operatori sanitari per le infezioni virali trasmesse con il sangue.

The growing number of cases of HIV/AIDS infection is closely correlated to an increasing demand for hospitalisation for AIDS and correlated syndromes. For this reason health workers should be considered a high risk category in terms of contagion and, from 1987 onwards, the Italian Ministry of Health has issued a series of guidelines for the prevention of HIV contagion among health workers. The authors attempt to evaluate the risk of professional exposure not only to HIV but to all viruses transmitted by blood or other biological fluids in a surgery ward. It is important to recall that all patients and biological samples must be considered and treated as potentially infected and infecting and hospital personnel must use protective measures even for routine procedures.