[HIV testing of the general population: international recommendations and actual risks for HIV infections in health occupations].

Austria has the highest HIV-test rate per 1,000 inhabitants in the European Union. This may be related to beliefs held by the health care personnel that knowledge of the HIV-serostatus of a patient (e.g. via preoperative routine testing) serves as a protective measure against occupational HIV-infection for themselves. International guidelines recommend universal screening for HIV in health-care settings only when the undiagnosed prevalence of HIV is >  0.1 %, or the diagnosed prevalence is > 0.2 %. HIV poses a small, but real risk to health-care personnel. Worldwide, 106 cases of occupational HIV-infection have been documented (since the beginning of counting in the 1990s until 2002): in Austria there have been 4 cases of occupational HIV-infection in 15 years of documentation. There is no convincing evidence that knowledge of the serostatus of a patient leads to changes in the behaviour of health-care workers. For low-prevalence countries, such as Austria, a rather focused testing-strategy is recommended.