Eye care and AIDS prevention for ophthalmic medical personnel

1. Clinical nurse specialists should use common sense precautions for infection control in all office procedures to prevent the spread of HIV, especially handwashing and proper disinfection of all instruments. 2. Nurses should be fully informed of the appearance and mechanism of AIDS in ocular manifestations (especially cotton-wool spots and retinal hemorrhages) and the effects of cytomegalovirus and Kaposi's sarcoma on vision. 3. Prevention of infections by reducing the risk appears to be the only current defense against the transmission of HIV.