DT News - UK - Scottish dental patients receive HIV warning

Dental Tribune International

Sun. 25 August 2013

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GLASGOW/DUMFRIES, UK: Only a few days after the UK Department of Health announced that it will ease the ban on HIV-positive medical personnel, health authorities in Scotland contacted about 3,000 patients because they might have been exposed to the virus. They were treated by a former dentist who was recently found to have HIV.

The officials at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, as well as NHS Dumfries and Galloway, informed the public last week that they had sent letters to approximately 3,000 NHS and private patients registered with two dental clinics where the dentist had worked in the last several years.

According to the press release, the dentist had worked in Paisley between 2004 and March 2013. He had also treated patients in Dumfries between 2004 and 2007.

The authorities have contacted the vast majority of patients already as a precaution but they have been unable to trace about 500 patients.

Owing to strict infection-control measures, it is very rare for the virus to be passed from a health care worker to a patient, said Dr Syed Ahmed, clinical director in charge of the Public Health Protection Unit in Glasgow. According to the Department of Health, there is no record of any patient ever being infected through a health care worker in the UK. However, patients who want to be tested for HIV may contact the freephone help-line set up by the NHS.

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