mosche has some very valid points.
BB- if you are serious about going to med school, you need to rethink it. your job as a physician is to see patients. And if you think you are going to avoid it, simply by location, you are mistaken.
HIV/AIDS statistics in the US:
At the end of 2003, the CDC estimates that 405,926 persons were living with AIDS in the USA.
Of these,
* 36% were white
* 42% were black
* 20% were Hispanic
* 2% were of other race/ethnicity.
Of the adults and adolescents1 with AIDS, 77% were men. Of these men,
* 58% were men who had sex with men (MSM)
* 22% were injection drug users (IDU)
* 11% were exposed through heterosexual contact
* 8% were both MSM and IDU.
Of the 88,815 adult and adolescent women with AIDS,
* 63% were exposed through heterosexual contact
* 35% were exposed through injection drug use.
An estimated 1,998 children were living with AIDS at the end of 2003.
Persons with AIDS are surviving longer and are contributing to a steady increase in the number of people living with AIDS. This trend will continue as long as the number of people with a new AIDS diagnosis exceeds the number of people dying each year.
AIDS diagnoses and deaths
IThere were an estimated 43,171 diagnoses in 2003. In total, an estimated 929,985 people have been diagnosed with AIDS.
The number of deaths among people with AIDS remained relatively stable in the period 1999-2003. In the latter year, there were an estimated 18,017 deaths. Since the beginning of the epidemic, an estimated 524,060 people with AIDS have died in the USA.
Who is affected by AIDS?
During the 1990s, the epidemic shifted steadily toward a growing proportion of AIDS cases among black people and Hispanics and in women, and toward a decreasing proportion in MSM, although this group remains the largest single exposure group. Black people and Hispanics have been disproportionately affected since the early years of the epidemic. In absolute numbers, blacks have outnumbered whites in new AIDS diagnoses and deaths since 1996, and in the number of people living with AIDS since 1998.
From 1999 to 2003, the estimated number of AIDS cases decreased slightly among white people and increased slightly among black people. Meanwhile the number of Hispanics diagnosed with AIDS rose by an estimated 8%, and diagnoses in Asians/Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives also increased.
In the period 1999-2003, the estimated number of females diagnosed with AIDS increased by 15%, while male diagnoses grew by just 1%. The estimated annual number of AIDS diagnoses in people infected through heterosexual sex has risen each year since 1999, and MSM cases have been increasing since 2001. Meanwhile, IDU cases have been declining in number.
During 2003 there were an estimated 59 paediatric AIDS diagnoses; this is less than a third of the estimated number in 1999. The decline in paediatric AIDS incidence is associated with the implementation of Public Health Service guidelines. These guidelines include universal counselling and voluntary HIV testing of pregnant women and the use of zidovudine by HIV-infected pregnant women and their newborn infants.
The age group 35-44 years represented 41% of all AIDS cases diagnosed in 2003. Nearly three-quarters of all people who have died with AIDS did not live to the age of 45.
HIV statistics
At the end of 2003, the CDC estimates that there were 351,614 persons living with HIV/AIDS in the 33 areas which have a history of confidential name-based HIV reporting3. However, the true number of persons in the USA with HIV/AIDS is likely to be closer to one million.
During 2003, an estimated 32,048 new diagnoses of HIV infection were reported from the 33 areas with a history of confidential name-based reporting. Of these, 72% were among adult or adolescent males, 27% were among adult or adolescent females, and less than 1% were among children under 13 years of age. Recent HIV reports represent a mixture of people with recent infection and others who may have been infected in the past but are only now being diagnosed.
Your implication that SF (with a largley gay population) has a higher incidince of HIV/AIDS is a niave assumption. And statistically is incorrect.
If you are a medical student, you WILL have to deal with HIV. It is not an uncommon disease. You duty as a physician is to be familiar with this disease, to some degree. Are you going ot refuse to examine a patient? refuse to care for them?
And you spouse pawning off his procedure is a disgraceful act. I hope for the sake of his/her fellow residents, that someone reports it to the residency director and reprimands him. Its inappropriate, inconsiderate and truly embarrassing that a resident would try to decrease his risk by INCREASING someone elses risk.
HIV is a risk in medicine. However, if you use universal precautions and are aware of your environment (aka sharps) your risk is minimal.
