Open AccessFear of dying and HIV infection vs hepatitis B infection.
Author(s) -
Lawrence J. Schneiderman,
R M Kaplan
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.82.4.584
Subject(s) - accidental , medicine , hepatitis b , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , disease , immunology , hepatitis b virus , hepatitis , cause of death , virology , virus , physics , acoustics
Accidental exposure to the blood of hepatitis B patients produced less fear than does accidental exposure today to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), even though both have an approximately equal overall risk of death (approximately 1%). Subjects responding to hypothetical insect-exposure and disease-exposure scenarios chose to avoid the HIV-type risk of 1% chance of exposure/100% chance of death. Fear of certain death seems to account for the greater concern about exposure to HIV than to Hepatitis B.