AIDS (Hansard, 13 July 1987)

§ Mr. Graham
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what advice he has given to the dental profession to prevent the spread of AIDS.

§ Mr. Newton
The Chief Dental Officer issued guidance to all dentists in April last year which stressed the importance of following high standards of cross-infection control when treating all patients, including the use of operating gloves by all dentists and close support staff when treating patients. The advice was in line with previous advice on clinical procedures recommended by the expert group on hepatitis in dentistry in 1979. Following those simple procedures will minimise exposure to the virus during the course of dental treatment.
The Chief Dental Officer also wrote to dentists in September 1986 advising against the use of jet injectors for multiple purposes by dentists. This guidance too relates to control of cross infection. The need to issue further guidance is kept under regular review.

§ Mr. Dobson
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether his Department's statistics on AIDS victims include people other than those suffering from Kaposi's sarcoma and/or pneumocystis pneumonia;
(2) what are his Department's latest estimates for the numbers (a) infected and (b) dead from AIDS or HIV-related disease.

§ Mr. Newton
Statistics on AIDS are based on reports to the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) and the Communicable Disease (Scotland) Unit (CD(S)U). These statistics include people suffering from conditions other than Kaposi's sarcoma and/or pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, but these two diagnoses form the presenting features in more than half the reported cases. The definition of AIDS established at the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, covers a number of other diagnoses, including other opportunistic infections. This definition is currently under review by CDC.
The number of AIDS cases and people who have died from AIDS as reported to CDSC and CD(S)U was published on 6 July. A copy of the publication has been placed in the Library. There will also be cases of HIV-related illness, and possibly some deaths, amongst people who have not progressed to AIDS. These cases will not be included in the CDSC and CD(S)U AIDS figures.
371W
I gave our current estimate of the number of people infected with HIV in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Sir D. Price) on 7 July at column 123.