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HIV transmission from health care provider to patient has been documented only once, in a cluster of patients of a dentist in Florida. Epidemiologists in France now report a second case. An orthopedic surgeon with no other risk factors for HIV infection sustained a needlestick injury in 1983 while operating on a patient of unknown HIV status who had received multiple blood transfusions. Thirty days later, the surgeon developed a febrile illness consistent with primary HIV infection. In 1994, he was diagnosed with HIV encephalopathy. He reported frequent blood exposure during surgical procedures, and frequent cutaneous and percutaneous blood exposure.
After it was learned that the surgeon was HIV positive, 3,004 patients operated on by him be…