A surgeon infected with HIV is to be allowed to start operating again in what is the first known case of its kind in the United Kingdom.

Professor George Browning, an ear specialist at the Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow, will conduct operations when there is deemed to be no measurable risk of the virus being transmitted to patients or staff. The intricate middle ear surgery is carried out using instruments, with no physical contact between surgeon and patient.

The decision to allow Professor Browning to return to the operating theatre was taken after detailed consideration of the circumstances by his employers, the West Glasgow Hospitals Trust, which took advice from the Department of …