Recently, the Centers for Disease Control issued new guidelines on AIDS in the workplace for health care workers, personal service workers, food service workers, and other workers. Because of the high risk to them, health care workers are advised to consider all patients as potential carriers of AIDS or HIV. AIDS victims are protected by Federal and State fair employment practice laws that define AIDS as a legally protected handicap. Employers cannot legally discriminate against AIDS victims unless freedom from AIDS can be defined as a bonafide occupational qualification. These employers face problems regarding the safety and health of co-workers who work alongside AIDS victims. Some companies have weighed the possibility of legal action for discrimination by an AIDS victim employee or applicant against the possibility of a lawsuit by a co-worker infected by AIDS after an AIDS victim or AIDS-related carrier is employed. They concluded that a fair employment practice charge by an AIDS carrier or victim would be preferable to paying millions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit brought for negligent failure to provide a safe workplace. 19 footnotes.