Client with HIV

[megaone]

I have been asked to help out in a women's centre (the centre is for women that are abused or beaten) doing facials, but I have found out through another lady that some of the women may have HIV. How would you deal with this offer of work as I don't mind helping out.

 

[squidgernetball]

The thing to remember about hiv is that anybody can have it. You may have already treated clients who are hiv positive and your children may play at school with hiv positive children so it is worth thinking about hygiene protocols at all times and dealing with body fluids. No body fluids means nothing to worry about.

Doing a regular facial on an hiv positive client would be no different from a non hiv client. You would check for contra indications - open wounds would be a contra for anyone, and proceed in the normal way.

The Centre may have their own guidelines and I'd be very surprised if they told you if anyone is hiv, bearing in mind they may not know for sure anyway.

So often there is scaremongering around hiv with people talking about other people's conditions with little or no knowledge. Imagine if you were hiv positive and had people discussing you!

I think it's great that you want to help out. I was taught to treat every client as if they were hiv positive but let's face it, it's not often gushing body fluids from an unknown source come your way!

Vic x

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[princessamie]

I think that if you need to know, they'll tell you. For example, if someone has an open wound and is HIV positive, they'll let you know.

I agree that, there is a lot of scaremongering about HIV but people who are HIV positive are responsible about it and I very much doubt anyone would put you at risk intentionally.

Personally, I would treat them the same as any other client until I was told otherwise

 

[Matthew Taylor]

I totally agree with Vic, not a single person has a sign on them that say if they are positive or not and so the correct due diligence should be adhered to at all times, regardless of the mention of it. As mentioned you may well have already treated someone that has it (whether they know or not).

Unfortunately the stigma still surrounds this infection and unbelievably many people still think it can be caught from sharing towels or from toilet seats; and people are treated like they have the plague.

I hope if someone did tell you they were positive that it wouldn't phase you and that your professionalism would shine through.