AIDS AND AUSTRIAN PHYSICIANS.

The article discusses a survey that focuses on the role of Austrian physicians in educating their patients about HIV-related risk behaviors and dealing with AIDS issues. In Austria, health care is nationalized and general practitioners, internists, and dermatologists play the role of family physicians and are available to all citizens. They are in a good position to educate their patients about HIV prevention. For these reasons, these three groups of physicians were chosen for this survey. The questionnaire in the survey included approximately 100 questions grouped into different sections. The first section dealt with demographic and professional details of the physicians and their practices. The second section contained questions related to experience of physicians with HIV-positive patients. The respondents estimated that they saw from 20 to 3,200 patients per month, with an average of 529. Nineteen physicians indicated experience with at least one HIV-infected patient in their office. Fourteen of these 19 physicians reported that the HIV-infected patients had informed them about their HIV status, whereas 5 of the 19 physicians had diagnosed persons as HIV-positive.