I'm not aware of the HIV situation down at UCSF, but I don't think that it should be a real concern to you. As a surgeon, I don't think we should concentrate on being infected with HIV, Hepatitis, or creutzfeld-jacob disease for that matter =). I've been in on a lot of cases and I have yet to cut myself or anyone else. Double glove (whites on top, ortho's underneath) and do your thing. When we concentrate on not making mistakes, that's when we do. After all, considering the incidence of docs being infected with the HIV virus. . . . .you probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning than contracting HIV from a patient.

I would agree with Bone Jock (oddly enough) here. I've only been stuck once after scrubbing in on umpteen plus one cases and that was only because the jacka$$ was trying to reduce an entire talus with a dental pick and sliced my finger.
Use good technique, use the proper tool for the job, double glove and hang on.

By the way Bone Jock, I'm pretty sure that's not how I got my case of creutzfeld-jacob. :tired:

Agree with above about contracting HIV. You should go into every case assuming the patient has every blood borne disease imaginable and use the same caution on every patient accordingly.

Also, I don't know specific numbers, but I think that HIV prevalence will be similar in every big city hospital population. I know that it is extremely common at the hospital I did my med school clerkships at UT Southwestern. If you are looking to avoid high prevalence of HIV you should look at programs that serve smaller towns and/or low percentages of indigent patients. Just my opinion.