Associated Press - Friday, August 30, 1985

"For most infected children, the benefits of an unrestricted setting would outweigh . . . the apparent nonexistent risk of transmission," the national Centers for Disease Control said.

The Atlanta-based health agency said decisions on the care and education of a child infected with AIDS virus, called HTLV-III, should be made on a case-by-case basis whether or not the child has shown signs of having the disease, taking into account the child's behavior, development and physical condition, and his expected interaction with other children.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which cripples the body's disease-fighting mechanism, is caused by a virus and transmitted through blood, blood products or body fluids in intimate contact.

"Casual person-to-person contact, as would occur among schoolchildren, appears to pose no risk," the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. At least 183 people under 18 have caught AIDS, and two to 10 times as many probably are infected with the virus, said Dr. Martha Rogers, a specialist with the CDC's AIDS task force.

No children have ever been found to have contracted AIDS in

school, day care, foster care or other casual contact, the CDC said. But as far as CDC researchers know, no U.S. public school system has knowingly admitted a child infected with AIDS virus.

Whether to allow children with AIDS into schools has divided many communities:

* In a celebrated case in Kokomo, Ind., 13-year-old hemophiliac Ryan White, who contracted AIDS from a contaminated blood product, has been barred from school.

* A suit was threatened by the guardian of a 4-year-old girl in Plainfield, N.J., if educators bar her from kindergarten next week. The Plainfield Board of Education is waiting for state guidelines on whether the 17 AIDS-afflicted children in New Jersey should attend public schools.

* In New York state, health officials recommended Thursday that most children with AIDS be admitted to classes, echoing the CDC advisory.

* Local school boards in Connecticut were told to decide for themselves whether to allow three afflicted children go to school, a state Board of Education spokesman said.

Also Thursday, the CDC published recommendations for avoiding AIDS transmission through tears. Doctors performing eye exams and other health professionals working with patients' eyes should wash their hands and keep instruments and trial-fitting contact lenses disinfected, the agency said. Gloves should be worn when possible.
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