[Epidemiology and means of transmission of HIV infection].

Epidemiological features of HIV infection and the AIDS pandemic are described in this review. The number of AIDS cases will continue to rise for several years, despite enormous efforts to slow the spread of HIV via sexual and parenteral exposure, since virtually all adult patients who will develop AIDS within the next 3-5 years are already infected. Careful examination of AIDS patients without identified risk factors and results obtained from anonymous testing sites for HIV infection have failed to disclose any new forms of HIV transmission. The risk for health care workers to become infected through occupational exposure appears to be very small (0.1-0.4% per documented parenteral HIV-positive blood exposure). Universal precautions against mucocutaneous blood exposure are likely to reduce this risk even further.