As reported in the February SHEA News, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published the final regulations for its Bloodborne Hazard Standard in the December 6, 1991 Federal Register. Although all hospitals should long since have implemented Universal Precautions (UP), which form the heart of the Standard, few will have achieved full compliance with the substantive components of the Standard (and, likely, none with the bureaucratic components). As readers of this Journal are likely to shoulder substantial responsibility for the implementation of this infection control regulation, which was promulgated largely in response to concerns regarding the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), this months AIDS column is devoted to explaining the Standard.