Occupational hazard of the gross kind

Province looks to protect guards; Legislation could force inmates to submit to blood tests

"A provincial law that could force people who spit at or spatter their bodily fluids on others to submit to blood tests will apply to all federal and provincial prison guards, says a spokeswoman for Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Monte Kwinter."

Kwinter has previously specifically named police officers, emergency first responders and victims of crime as the people who will benefit from the law and has not spoken publicly about correctional officers.


A nice gesture ... but rather useless, i'll get to why later.

A close family member had an experience with this, after being exposed to an infected individual following an altercation. Infected ... but he had no idea with what.... and the "perp" wasn't talking.

So this leaves two choices :

1. Risk contracting god knows what ... worst case being HIV/AIDS.

-or-

2. Taking a regimen of pharmaceuticals not-so-affectionately known as the AIDS cocktail, with side effects similar to those suffered following chemotherapy. For a month.

What would you choose ?

My family member chose the cocktail and suffered greatly for it.

Back to the article .. I said that the law was basically useless ... wanna know why ?

Because the treatment needs to be delivered soon after the transmission of body fluids to be effective ... preferably within the hour.

HIV test results aren't delivered that fast .... so the catch 22 decision for the lucky recipient of the goo still has to be made.

What do the "thug-huggers" think of the new law ?

Craig Jones, acting executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, said prison guard work is inherently dangerous and those who can't handle the stress of it shouldn't do it.

Jones suggested that the risk of contracting a communicable disease is one of the dangers of the job and said forcing inmates to take blood tests is punitive and constitutes harassment.


Would you expect anything less ?

In case you are wondering ... my family member made out ok and is infection free long after the one year danger period.

The perp ..... he's dead, but not from his HEP-C infection ... from his crack habit.

Good riddance.