Lookback investigation of patients potentially exposed to HIV type 1 after a nurse-to-patient transmission.

A nurse-to-patient transmission of HIV type 1 was recently documented in a French hospital. The origin of the transmission remained unclear. To inform patients who may have been exposed to the nurse while they had received care, a lookback investigation that included mailings and a viral screening was conducted for 7580 patients. No other case of nurse-to-patient transmission of HIV-1 was identified. (Am J Infect Control 2002;30:242-5.)