• Roland C Merchant and Reza Keshavarz.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. merchant@lifespan.org
• Am J Emerg Med. 2003 Jul 1; 21 (4): 309-12.

AbstractTo determine how often US ED practitioners have prescribed HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (HIV PEP) and to discern how willing they are to offer it to patients, the authors surveyed 600 ED practitioners attending a national conference. According to their self-report, 11% had taken HIV PEP themselves. Sixty-eight percent had prescribed HIV PEP at some time. Of these, 92% had treated needlestick-injured health care workers, 48% sexual assault survivors, and 49% nonhealth care needlestick-injured persons. ED practitioners were more willing to offer HIV PEP after exposures to HIV-infected or high-risk sources than unknown or low- risk sources, as well as after sexual assault than consensual sex. Female practitioners, those who had themselves taken HIV PEP, resident physicians, and ED practitioners with fewer than 6 years of clinical practice were generally more apt to offer HIV PEP. Educational campaigns appear to be necessary to help ED practitioners determine when HIV PEP is appropriate.

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