Fears that hundreds of HIV-positive nurses may have come to work in the UK may prompt compulsory testing of all new health staff, it is reported.

There is concern about the growing numbers of health workers who have been infected with the virus.

It is suspected that as many as 700 infected nursing staff came to work in Britian from overseas last year.

The recommendations are still being considered

Department of Health spokesman

The majority of these are thought to have come from southern Africa, where HIV infection is at epidemic proportions.

Currently health workers do not have to undergo an HIV test before working in the UK.

The Times newspaper reports that an expert group was set up by ministers last August to review the policy options for offering or requiring HIV testing, and that it is likely to recommend that test for overseas recruits are made compulsory.

Whether a positive test would disqualify a nurse or doctor from working in the NHS is unknown.

Some duties carry no risk to patients, but restrictions would have to be applied - and medication costing thousands of pounds a year funded.

No firm plans

However, a Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Ministers have yet to make a decision on this.

"The recommendations are still being considered."

The government is trying to boost the number of foreign nurses coming to work in the NHS, although it claims that it would not aim to recruit from developing countries - such as those worst hit by the Aids epidemic.

Patients can be confident that they are not at risk from nurses who are HIV positive

Dr Beverly Malone

However, professionals from that country are welcome to apply for nurse or doctor posts in the UK and then apply for work permits in the normal way, it says.

And, regardless of any government efforts not to recruit from the developing world, last year, 2,114 nurses were recruited from South Africa

The country was the second biggest provider of foreign nurses to the NHS, according to figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

As one in five adults in that country is HIV positive, it is likely that hundreds of these could be carrying the virus.

Poor countries

In addition, 500 nurses were recruited from Zimbabwe, and 100 from Botswana, which has a smaller, but still highly alarming infection rate.

Critics say that the NHS, in its desperation to fill nursing vacancies, is still drawing heavily on health systems which can ill-afford to lose skilled staff they have spent vital funds training.

Dr Beverly Malone, General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing said: "Patients can be confident that they are not at risk from nurses who are HIV positive.

"All nurses have a duty to work safely and those who are aware of their HIV positive status also have a responsibility to seek expert medical advice.

"It's important that employers in the NHS ensure a culture of trust so that staff feel able to disclose health issues in confidence and seek appropriate support and advice from their managers and occupational health services."

Andrew Ridley, of the HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "The trust is not opposed to the possibility of anyone, including newly recruited healthcare workers, being offered HIV or any healthcare tests, provided that such tests remain optional and do not bar anyone from suitable future employment.

"Any healthcare worker who does test positive for HIV or another blood-borne virus, or who does not want to test at all, should not be excluded from working within the NHS, but should be offered work in one of the many areas which do not involve invasive procedures."

The review was set up after Wolverhampton Health Authority found it had recruited 10 HIV-positive nurses.

There is no evidence that any patient in the UK has been infected with HIV after coming into contact with a health worker carrying the virus.

The chances of such transmission are very small.