aids awareness among rural utah physicians studies of physicians attitudes and knowledge of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome aids and the clinical precautions they take against exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus hiv have focused on urban physicians to determine rural physicians knowledge and attitudes about aids a questionnaire was mailed to 321 physicians practicing in rural utah of the 169 physicians who completed questionnaires 96 thought that their community or area of service had only a minor or no problem with aids 89 however thought that their chance of seeing a patient who was hivpositive was fair to moderate of the 169 respondents 3 were not sure whether they would even treat a patient who had aids 67 said they would and 30 said they would not although all physicians are at risk of seeing a patient who has had exposure to hiv and other bloodborne diseases such as hepatitis b only 55 of the respondents felt a need to take clinical precautions to prevent their exposure to the virus our study shows the need for all rural utah physicians to reevaluate their risk of exposure to hiv to increase precautionary measures for their own protection to consider the ethical responsibility of treating aids patients and to take a more active role in teaching their patients how to protect themselves from exposure to the virus