Bay Windows - National News, December 8, 2000
Beth Berlo, Bay Windows staff

According to GLAD attorney Bennett Klein, his client, Mario Poulin of Nashua, was scheduled for a minor urological procedure April 6 with Dr. Gary Dunetz at Southern New Hampshire Urological Associates. After Poulin was brought into the room and removed his clothes for the procedure, it was abruptly canceled. According to Klein, Dunetz told Poulin he was nervous about performing the procedure in the office and explained that a hospital setting would provide better sterilization of the instruments.

ôThey should be treating equipment so that itÆs safe for everyone,ö said GLAD Executive Director Gary Buseck. ôThey may be working with an HIV patient who doesnÆt even know they are.ö

GLAD maintains that in addition to the lack of medical or scientific merit to DunetzÆs fears, there is no medical or scientific basis for performing a routine urological procedure in a hospital setting rather than an office setting based on a patientÆs HIV-positive status.

ôOne of the reasons that we felt we had to address this case is that it is so shocking that the doctor, in response to our complaint, has explicitly acknowledged that he uses different infection control procedures than for all of his other patients,ö Klein said. ôThat is so disturbing in this day and age and reflects such misunderstandings and biases that it was a case that had to be addressed.ö Dunetz could not be reached for comment.

Since the onset of the AIDS epidemic, there has never been a case of HIV transmission reported between patients in a medical setting because of unsterilized medical equipment. Public health officials note that it is impossible to know which patients have HIV by looking at them, and therefore the same infection control or sterilization techniques should be used for all patients. But since it is considered illegal discrimination for doctors to treat patients with HIV in a separate facility without a legitimate reason, Klein said, a complaint was filed.

The old problems of prejudice and fear around HIV, even in the medical community, might not be as widespread as they once were, but, according to GLAD, theyÆre not completely gone either. ôDoctors should know better than to act based on unfounded fears of HIV transmission when medical science and uniform standards for infection control dictate otherwise,ö Klein said.

According to GLADÆs Andrea Hildebran, more than 19 people in the past two years filed complaints with the GLAD saying they had been refused medical or dental treatment because of their HIV status. ôIt still happens pretty regularly,ö Hildebran said.

ôSome of these calls are truly shocking,ö Klein reported. ôOne call we had involved a dermatology clinic affiliated with a local medical school. The [HIV positive] client needed some kind of cosmetic laser surgery. The doctor wouldnÆt do it because he wanted to find out if the disease could be transmitted through aerosols. And that happened here in Boston in the last six months.ö

While AIDS continues to be a stigmatized disease, Klein added, ôIt is important to remember that people living with HIV today still face discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, and access to businesses and medical services such as the medical care unjustly denied here.ö

Poulin, in a statement released through GLAD, said he was devastated that ôanyone and especially anyone in the medical profession, would think that it is appropriate to treat me as though I am dangerous.ö Poulin also said he filed the complaint to prevent anyone else from experiencing the same, ôignorant and irrational treatmentö that he did. t
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