s other clinic attire. In addition, universal precautions may be employed as a supplement to routine infection control.
In 1983, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a document entitled "Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals". This report contained a section entitled "Blood and Body Fluid Precautions". The section recommended that health care workers use various precautions around patients known or suspected of being infected with bloodborne pathogens. Then, in August 1987, another document, "Recommendations for Prevention of HIV Transmission in Health Care Settings", dramatically revised the earlier guidelines. The 1987 document recommended that blood and body fluid precautions be consistently used for all patients regardless of their "bloodborne infection status" ("Update", 1988, pp. 377-382). These modified guidelines are referred to as "Universal Blood and Body Fluid Precautions" or "Universal Precautions" ("Update", 1988, pp. 377-382). Under these precautions, the blood and body fluids of all patients are considered to be potentially infectious for HIV, hepatitis B (HBV), and other bloodborne pathogens.
Although there has not been a dramatic rise in cases of HIV transmission from patients to health care workers, the potential for both HIV and hepatitis B (HBV) infection is very real (Green & Gompertz, 1992, pp. 306-308). Occupational transmissions of HIV and HBV to health care workers by blood has already been documented. Blood is the single most important source of such pathogens. While universal precautions also apply to semen and vaginal secretions, these fluids have not yet been implicated in occupational transmissions between patients and health care workers. Exposure to semen in most health care settings is usually limited, and persons performing vaginal examinations routinely wear gloves. Other fluids to which universal precautions apply include cerebrospinal flu...