HIV/AIDS: Running away?

Send your letters to the Editor, British Dental Journal, 64 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8YS. bdj@bda.org. Priority will be given to letters less than 500 words long. Authors must sign the letter, which may be edited for reasons of space.

Sir, your editorial¹ and the paper People Living with HIV STIGMASurvey UK 2015: Stigmatising experiences and dental care² were saddening and depressing for me.

My experience of risk aversion by my dental colleagues dates back before a Hepatitis B vaccine was available when I discovered that I was the only clinician prepared to treat the unfortunate hepatitis sufferers or carriers.

The whole situation was then repeated when HIV/AIDS came to the fore. It is notable that this degree of aversion applied neither to the dental and medical nursing staff nor to anaesthetists who were willing to help me.

The late Professor Scully and I fought long and hard for universal precautions in the face of opposition from management and, bizarrely, the very same risk averse clinicians. With a breath-taking display of psychological ineptitude, they believed that a simple questionnaire would identify risky sexual practices.

What a pity that we seem not to be able to emulate fire-fighters, ambulance crews and police who run towards trouble, not away from it.