I think everybody is missing Dougs point...if we are going to say that an infected HCW be banned from treating pts due to their disease status than the reverse discrimination could very well be true also. I understand the concept of "do no harm" and agree completely with that train of thought ..but....don't you think that as healthcare professionals we would know and understand slightly better than the "average Joe" on the street what exactly would cause a risk to our pts, were as the infected(and i don't care what the disease is) person seeking our assistance would? If we are going to discriminate against persons with communicable diseases than it should be across the board. On a personal note I DO NOT believe in this line of thought at all. Although I don't personally know any HCW who has this issue I am more than positive there are more than capable individuals out there who are trying to live their lives with this problem and are doing the best job they can. Another note...I am Dougs partner and have been for the last 15 months or so first as a Basic and now as an Intermediate/Medic student...I have NEVER in the thousands of calls we have done together seen him treat a pt with anything less than compassion and resect even if in my mind they didn't always deserve it.