This Month's HIV/AIDS Facts

These facts contain commonly accepted public health information about the prevention and transmission of HIV and AIDS. If this is not the information that you are seeking, please use the Back button on your browser to visit another section of our site. Thank you.

Question: What are universal precautions?

Basic Answer: Universal precautions are guidelines to protect health care workers, as well as patients, from exposure to HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), and other bloodborne germs.

Detailed Answer: Universal precautions are guidelines to protect health care workers, as well as patients, from exposure to HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), hepatitis B and other bloodborne germs. Following these guidelines, health care workers treat blood, certain body fluids (including semen and vaginal fluid) and tissue from all patients as if they were infectious. The guidelines do not apply to body fluids such as sweat, tears, saliva, urine and feces unless they contain blood.

Under universal precautions, health care workers take certain steps when they are doing something that may bring them into contact with infected body fluids. For example, they wear protective equipment such as goggles, gowns and latex, vinyl or nitrile disposable gloves to avoid exposing skin or mucus membranes to infected fluids. Other ways health care workers protect themselves include washing hands, not recapping needles by hand after an injection, disposing of needles and other sharp tools in puncture-proof containers and wearing face masks approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). These procedures also protect patients from exposure to health care workers’ body fluids.

Universal precautions are in addition to other infection control procedures for specific diseases. They also form part of the foundation for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations covering occupational exposure to bloodborne germs.

SOURCES:

• American Red Cross. Emergency Response. 2001.
• U.S. Department of Labor. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Enforcement Procedures for the Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens. Directive Number CPL 2-2.69. November 27, 2001."
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MMWR, 2001; vol. 50, no. RR-11. "Updated U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for the Management of Occupational Exposures to HBV, HCV, and HIV and Recommendations for Postexposure Prophylaxis."
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Exposure to Blood. What Health-Care Workers Need to Know." 1999.
• DeVita, V., Jr., et al., eds. AIDS: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention, 4th ed. 1997.
• Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 1996; vol. 17, no. 1. "Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals."
• Hospitals.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Surgeon General’s Report to the American Public on HIV lnfection and AIDS. June 1993. lnfection and AIDS. June 1993. U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Occupational Exposure to Bloodborne Pathogens, Final Rule. 29 CFR Part 1910.1030. December 6, 1991.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MMWR, 1988; vol. 37, no. 24. "Update: Universal Precautions for Prevention of Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B Virus, and Other Bloodborne Pathogens in Health-Care Settings."

For information on occupational exposure to HIV and other bloodborne germs, contact the HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service (800/448-0440) or its Web site at www.hivatis.org.

For current statistics, contact the CDC National AIDS Hotline (800/342-AIDS), Spanish (800/344-7432), TTY/TDD (800/243-7889); the CDC Voice and Fax Information System (888/232-3228); the CDC National Prevention Information Network (800/458-5231) or its Web site at www.cdcnpin.org; or the CDC HIV/AIDS Web site at www.cdc.gov/hiv/dhap.htm.