Reduce HIV Risk for Health Workers

I rarely write letters because of a newspaper article. However, when I read about Dr. Cary Savitch’s book on AIDS public policy, I felt compelled to add my voice to his campaign.

As a nurse who volunteered to care for AIDS patients before the transmission route was identified, I understand the need as health-care workers to place our own health at risk.

I will accept reasonable risk. I am unwilling to accept standing still if someone tries to shoot me.

I find no difference if I am caring for a person who is HIV-positive and I do not know it. More than once that I know of, co-workers, through no fault of their own, were accidentally stuck with a sharp instrument, and the patient whose blood they were exposed to refused to be tested for HIV. The health-care workers undergo months of the agony of not knowing whether they have been exposed to HIV.

Dr. Savitch is speaking for all of the doctors, nurses, housekeepers and aides working in health care in asking for universal testing. I appreciate his dedication on behalf of all of us, and I wish him well.

CHARISE MILTENBERGER, R.N.

Thousand Oaks