Glasgow surgeon has HIV infection

A surgeon working in the Glasgow area is HIV positive, health officials said last night. They gave no details of the identity of the surgeon, where he worked, or how he is thought to have contracted the infection.

The disclosure came from Greater Glasgow Health Board, which promised further details on Monday.

The board said in a statement: "It has come to the attention of Greater Glasgow Health Board that a surgeon working in the Glasgow area was yesterday confirmed as having HIV infection."

It went on: "The health board has set up an expert working group to establish the exact circumstances of the case."

In the next few days the working group will liaise with hospitals where the surgeon worked to establish the list of patients he had operated on in recent years."Where it is considered that there is even the remotest risk of infection, the patients will be contacted directly and given the opportunity to receive expert counselling," the statement said."In accordance with national guidelines, the surgeon has been required to refrain from carrying out any further operations."

Details of where he worked were not disclosed in order to protect his identity.

Officials stressed that in similar cases worldwide there had not been one reported case of a surgeon infecting a patient with the virus.

Last year, another Glasgow hospital doctor was disclosed to be suffering from Aids.

Plymouth and Torbay Health authority revealed last month that one of its hospital doctors had died of Aids. It did not identify him but said he had worked as a junior locum in the maternity, gynaecological and accident and emergency departments of a Plymouth hospital. The authority said it was confident no patients were at risk.

Last July, an HIV-infected doctor working in Birmingham general hospital's radiology department resigned. The UK advisory panel on health workers with HIV told the local health authority it was safe for him to continue working. Local public health director Dr Bernard Crump said: "[His] circumstances and work were examined and the panel was satisfied there was no risk to patients."