Update: investigations of patients who have been treated by HIV-infected health-care workers.

Investigation of the patients of a Florida dentist with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) concluded that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was transmitted to five (0.5%) of approximately 1100 patients who were evaluated (1-3). Although the precise events resulting in transmission of HIV to these patients are not known, the findings of the investigation support direct dentist-to-patient transmission, rather than a patient-to-patient route. This report summarizes information from other published studies of patients who were treated by HIV-infected health-care workers (HCWs) (4-10), as well as from completed and ongoing unpublished investigations that have been reported to CDC.