A prospective study on the risk of exposure to HIV during surgery in Zambia

Abstract

Although occupational exposure rate was relatively low, the HIV seroprevalence was so high that the relative cumulated seroconversion risk for surgeons in tropical Africa is estimated to be 15 times higher than in western countries. This implies that health-care organizations should bear in mind that each year one out of 300 employees working in tropical Africa may become occupationally infected with HIV.