Sir, may I congratulate you for the strong leadership you have shown in highlighting the unacceptable way in which infected dental healthcare workers are treated in this country. David Croser, who as you may know is a colleague of mine here at Dental Protection, has provided your readers with a concise and balanced summary of the present position (Written off. BDJ 2006; 201: 497–499). What David did not say is that his own perspective is enriched by having devoted much of his recent career to treating and supporting HIV positive patients.

In the same way, Dental Protection has its own special perspective to bring to the debate. We have assisted many members in the UK and internationally who were infected with HIV and other blood-borne viruses. Many of our members work in countries where the incidence of such infections is exceptionally high, often acquired through vertical transmission.

The high profile legal challenges we mounted here in the UK in the cases of H (A Healthcare Worker) vs. Associated Newspapers Limited, and H (A Healthcare Worker) vs. N (A Health Authority) fought two important points of principle. Firstly, regarding a dentist's right to confidentiality and secondly, the need to adopt a proportional, evidence-based approach to look back exercises, instead of running around like headless chickens in order to satisfy irrational public perceptions and media-stoked fears.

My Dental Protection colleagues and I see at first hand the damage unnecessarily caused at a professional, personal and human level by the double standards currently applied. You cannot require healthcare professionals to act ethically in their approach to patients with blood-borne infections, and to respect the evidence base, when the same courtesy is not consistently reciprocated for reasons of convenience and political expediency.

You have the wholehearted support of this organisation in trying to redress the balance. Infected healthcare professionals are not pariahs to be cast out into the dental wilderness, but real people, and – let us not forget – they are patients themselves.