Posted By Ian Blenkharn Standard first aid and food hygiene precautions will be sufficient. The IP should clean any wound, dry it and apply an impervious dressing. Latex or similar disposable gloves would be advisable until any wound is totally healed. More serious injuries require professional assistance. Any contaminated equipment and work areas must be thoroughly cleaned with a freshly prepared hypochlorite solution, and contaminated food discarded. Those clearing any blood-contaminated areas must take appropriate precautions to prevent injury or contamination - gloves are a minimum requirement. Contaminated cleaning materials can be wrapped and discarded as domestic refuse. With standard and sensible precautions, the risk of transmission is negligible. Consideration and sensitivity toward the HIV+ individual can be achieved by developing a general safety and hygiene plan that addresses any and all contamination and biological risk, injuries involving blades, possible contamination of foodstuffs etc, without risk of confidentiality issues, and indded, the same precautions should be taken for all staff, irrespective of any knowledge about HIV or HepB status

Posted By Eric Beach As someone who has recently come to Health & Safety from 13 years of being a Health Promotion Adviser in HIV and Sexual Health, perhaps I might be able to add some useful comment. The risk of infection from an HIV +ve individual is relatively low. Most people who are infected with HIV and know about it have very low levels of the virus in their blood. In fact they are likely to have levels that are so low that even having unprotected sex with them [eg sex without a condom - if I'm allowed to mention such things on an IOSH Forum page?!?! - which is the primary way of becoming infected] is probably not much of a risk. There are two times when people have high levels of the virus [and hence pose a significant risk]. The first of these is just after infection [at a point where they don't know they have it, because the standard HIV test wouldn't detect it]. The second is when they become seriously ill due to HIV attacking their immune system [the point which we used to call AIDS - a position that many people never reach these days due to the improvement in anti-HIV drug therapy]. So the known-to-be-infected worker in the kitchen is unlikely to pass HIV on. And because they are known to be HIV +ve everyone is much more careful. The problem comes when we have people who carry infection and we don't know about it. Infections such as Viral Hepatitis [HepB and HepC] or Tuberculosis [TB] are much more infectious. Someone who is newly infected with HIV will also be a risk for a week or two. And the person with the runny nose is probably going to be the biggest threat of all! They will almost certainly infect food unless hand hygiene is very good. So the key to safety is good hygiene. Make sure that EVERYONE washes their hands regularly - especially after going to the toilet or blowing their nose. Make sure that EVERYONE uses good procedures after an accident / mishap. And if people are unwell, don't have them handling food. And just remember - if, as an employer, you are unhelpful or unsympathetic to someone who is infected with HIV, then this is considered to be discrimination against someone who has a 'disability' and you are likely to fall foul of the Disability Discrimination Act [and quite right too!] Hope that helps