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From: Hoffman.es@XEROX.COM
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Health Care Workers and AIDS
Message-ID: <27750@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 5 Oct 89 00:05:46 GMT
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Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu
Archive-number: 1302


I would like to reply to Ken Miller's two points in article 1289.

Miller says: (1) Health care workers have the right to know the medical
status of ANY patient.

My comment:  I agree, BUT.... But people who ought to know better,
including health care workers, continue to misinterpret an HIV antibody
test as an AIDS test, and continue to forget about the time delay between
infection and a positive antibody test.  That is, people think HIV-positive
= AIDS and HIV-negative = "NO AIDS".  In the health professions, that
second misinterpretation, the one equating HIV-negative with "SAFE" is
especially stupid and hazardous.

Once again, the lesson is that EVERY patient should be treated as though
s/he might have AIDS.  And, that being the case, what's the point of
testing / revealing HIV antibody status?  Sure, health care workers have
the right to know the medical status of any patient, but a patient's HIV
antibody status, esp. if negative, is pretty worthless!

- - - - - -

Miller says: (2) The continued emphasis on secrecy with HIV inhibits
efforts to stop the AIDS epidemic.  (He lauds the "standard technique in
halting the spread of STD's" through testing and contact tracing.)

My comment:  Until discrimination against AIDS patients in employment,
housing, insurance, etc. is approximately the same as that against any
other STD, I cannot agree.  It's not just the "stigma" that is the problem
here; it's the very real, sometimes catastrophic, discrimination.

-- Rodney Hoffman