Guidelines on HIV prophylaxis must be implemented

EDITOR—Duff et al's telephone survey of surgeons' and occupational health departments' awareness of guidelines on post-exposure prophylaxis for hospital staff who had been exposed to HIV raised two points.1 Firstly, although surgeons are indeed at risk of percutaneous exposure to HIV, it should be reiterated that there is a risk for all junior doctors and healthcare workers. Secondly, there seems to have been no assessment within the survey of how local policies are actually implemented. The survey assumed that if the occupational health department had …