title: [Opinion of undergraduate health sciences students towards ethical issues related to HIV-positive persons in schools, workplaces and health centers].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the opinion of undergraduate health sciences students in the Basque Country universities (UPV/EHU) regarding ethical issues related to HIV-positive persons in schools, workplaces and health centers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our population consisted of medical, nursing and dental undergraduate students attending UPV/EHU. An opinion survey was conducted among students attending lectures, on a randomly selected date in 2002-2003. The questionnaire included several items on ethical conflicts related to HIV-positive persons in different settings. Item responses consisted of a Likert-type scale with five possible levels of agreement (from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree"), as well as the option "I do not want to answer/I have no opinion about this".
  
  
  RESULTS
  529 completed questionnaires were collected. 69% of respondents reported total disagreement with refusing to admit HIV+ students to primary schools, and 77% with dismissal of HIV+ workers. Approximately 90% of respondents felt managers should be aware of the HIV+ status of their employees. 78% of the students did not report disagreement with having HIV+ schoolmates in classrooms. Respondents generally disagreed with employment limitations for HIV+ health care workers, 60% strongly disagreed with health workers refusing to treat HIV+ persons, 69% considered that HIV testing should be compulsory for health workers, and 55% that health workers should know their patients' HIV status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general terms, our students are against social and employment limitations targeting HIV+ persons, but favor disclosure of HIV status in schools and health centres.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Estomatología, Facultad de Medicina y Odontología, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 48949, Spain. alfonso.apellaniz@ehu.es.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Apellaniz
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Manzanaro
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D004989:Ethics; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace