I recently read "A Missed Opportunity in HIV Prevention?" (AJN Reports, January). As a vascular surgery nurse for more than 20 years, this topic is of great concern to me and some of my fellow nurses. We often provide emergency treatment for various types of vascular injuries, especially femoral artery pseudoaneurysms for intravenous drug users. These patients generally have a variety of infectious diseases, such as HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis. At the same time, they are not accepted by society or their families; as a result, we nurses may become targets of anger. There have been many reports of such patients using contaminated needles to injure nurses during intravenous fluid treatment in China, which has caused great physical and psychological harm to nurses. This should worry us all.

Hospitals must strengthen psychological counseling for these patients and increase security to ensure the safety of nurses. It would be nice for AJN to outline a practical change for hospital administrators to follow to prevent this worrisome outcome.

Xiaoyan Liu, PhD

Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China