What would you do?

I've been working through old ER DVD's; am currently on season 3.

One of the plot themes is that of a Physicians Assistant who is HIV+ (thanks to her ex-husband).



Recently, she has been receiving attention from the handsome infectious disease specialist, Dr. Greg Fischer, who is initially unaware of her status. She tells him on their first "date" and expects to hear no more from him.

However, Dr. Fischer doesn't give up on her and asks after a while for a second date. Afterwards, chemistry sparks between them and the relationship continues.


What happens next? They decide to do it.

But what would you do, if you were in that position? If you were Dr. Fischer would you take it further?


How would you feel about having a relationship with someone who is HIV+? Someone who you really liked, really got on with, everything else was perfect.

Considering that HIV is relatively hard to catch (compared to say some airborne viruses) and that someone on correct treatment can have very low viral counts and be quite un-infectious.

Do you think you could do it? And if it was hepatitis would you feel differently?

Of course, if you're a healthcare worker you might feel that it would never be worth the risk as it would effectively kill your career if you were HIV+. Which is kind of a bummer. And I don't know if it's necessarily fair either.
I don't think I would mind being treated by someone + because you actually have to try fairly hard to get HIV. For example a needle stick is only 0.3% risk.

Apparently even unprotected vaginal sex carries a risk of 0.1-0.3% (I guess this depends on a lot of factors though such as vaginal tears, viral load etc. etc.) Unprotected anal sex is a lot higher (1-10%)



So what do you think?

(Condoms - 1.9% breakage rate)