Associated Press - December 17, 1986

The decision is contained in a draft policy statement produced by a working group under Dr. William Mayer, Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs. A copy of the document was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Pentagon dismisses recruits who test positively for exposure but allows personnel on active duty who test positively to remain in the service as long as no signs of the actual disease arise. Some officials in the Army, however, have been pressing Dr. Mayer's group to require the honorable discharge of any member of the service who tests positively for exposure.

While the group declined to recommend a change in the retention policy, it has endorsed some other policy changes that may prove controversial.

For example, the group is urging that commanders be allowed to deny security clearances and flight status to personnel in medical screening who admit to drug use or homosexual activity, factors linked to the disease.

Final Recommendation Due

The draft policy is being circulated by Dr. Mayer among the armed services and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dated Dec. 11, it asks for final comments by Jan. 5 so a final recommendation can be forwarded to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger on Jan. 15.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome attacks the body's immune system and its ability to resist infection. No cure has been found for the fatal disease. Most of its victims are homosexuals, intravenous drug users and people receiving tainted blood transfusions, although there is evidence the disease is spreading to the general population.

The Pentagon began testing the blood of all military recruits for an antibody associated with AIDS in October 1985. Early this year the screening was extended to all active duty personnel.

The testing began under interim guidelines, subject to review after the first year of screening. It is the review that has produced the new draft policy.

The statement, as expected, incorporates new language on the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship that was ordered by Congress earlier this fall. That language specifies that the military services cannot use information disclosed to a doctor by anyone in the service after a positive test as the sole basis for a court-martial, discharge or "adverse personnel action."

But the working group, in carrying out the Congressional directive, said some exceptions were appropriate when people admitted drug use or homosexual activity and the job entailed such things as handling nuclear weapons or military secrets and flying airplanes.

Sharing of Names Urged

Among other changes, the draft policy would also allow military physicians to share with civilian health officials the names of any individuals identified by a service member as likely to have been exposed by that person to the disease through sexual or contact involving drug abuse.

The service member would be informed in advance, however, that any names volunteered would be shared with civilian health agencies.

Military doctors routinely tell civilian health officials whether members of the services have other communicable diseases, and in some states they are required to do so by law.

The most debatable aspect of the new review, however, was the question of retention, said officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Military recruits who test positively are automatically denied entry into the service. But those on active duty who show no signs of the disease are allowed to remain in the service, subject to restrictions on overseas deployments and job assignments.

Army officials have argued that any soldier who tests positively should be given an honorable discharge, said one source. People exposed to the disease, even those who have not contracted it, can transmit it through sexual contacts, raising ethical questions about keeping them on active duty as an employee of the Government, the source said.

Moreover, "everybody on the force is supposed to be deployable, and these people aren't," the source added.

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