# HIV Positive? As Your Therapist, I Need To Know

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-positive-as-your-therapist-i-need-to-know/199815>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 5, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-positive-as-your-therapist-i-need-to-know/199815 "2003-09-05T21:34:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-positive-as-your-therapist-i-need-to-know/199815/41 "2003-09-11T02:02:57Z")

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Thank you for the thread, **Quasimodem** - you didn’t word anything badly, IMHO. It’s so difficult to please all the folks all the time, ya know. 🙂

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**Author:** ![BooksWoods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@BooksWoods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooksWoods)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-positive-as-your-therapist-i-need-to-know/199815/42 "2003-09-13T19:31:30Z")

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So I guess you’re only at risk of contracting diseases the patient _knows_ they have? :rolleyes:

Can you say “universal precautions”?

I knew you could.  
(ps - occupationally-acquired HIV is very rare. You are much more likely to be infected with Hepatitis C or another disease. A patient who discloses their HIV status to all health care workers puts themselves at risk for being treated like a leper. And health care workers who “demand to know” the HIV status of all their patients are probably the ones most likely to treat them that way.)

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**Author:** ![BooksWoods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@BooksWoods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooksWoods)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-positive-as-your-therapist-i-need-to-know/199815/43 "2003-09-13T19:36:41Z")

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So I guess you’re only at risk of contracting diseases the patient _knows_ they have? :rolleyes:

Can you say “universal precautions”?

I knew you could.  
ps - occupationally-acquired HIV is very rare. You are much more likely to be infected with Hepatitis C or another disease. A patient who discloses their HIV status to all health care workers puts themselves at risk for being treated like a leper. And health care workers who “demand to know” the HIV status of all their patients are probably the ones most likely to treat them that way. This is just common sense. Like others have said, you should treat all patients as though they have communicable diseases. But I’m sure, as a health care worker, you know that…?

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