What infection control procedure should be followed when taking radiographs for an HIV-positive patient?

Standard precautions (formerly 'universal precautions') are applied to all patients regardless of their known or unknown infectious status. For radiograph procedures, standard precautions include: wearing gloves, using barriers (plastic covers) on the X-ray tube head, positioning device, and exposure button, changing barriers between patients, and disinfecting surfaces that cannot be covered. HIV-positive patients should NOT receive any different treatment protocol from other patients — the concept of standard precautions is precisely that every patient is treated as potentially infectious. Discriminatory refusal to treat or excessive precautions violate both ethical and legal standards.