Why Fear Persists: Health Care Professionals and AIDS
- 16 December 1988
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in JAMA
- Vol. 260 (23) , 3481-3483
- https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1988.03410230099037
Abstract
ACQUIRED immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a frightening disease. Recent studies of dental professionals, physicians, and nurses have documented that fear is a basic and persistent reaction to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. We have found, for example, that among a sample of dental providers in California, 81% of dentists and dental hygienists and 86% of dental assistants believed they would be at increased risk for infection if they treated people with AIDS.1,2 Physicians who worry about AIDS have reported increased stress. In one study, 40% of medical house officers and 24% of pediatric house officers said their levels of stress had risen either moderately or extremely because they were concerned about getting AIDS.3 More than half of the nurses in one study (59%) believed that AIDS could be transmitted to hospital personnel despite infection control precautions.4 These studies and others show that getting AIDS from aKeywords
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