Miami Herald - Thursday, MAR 28 1985
Steve Sternberg, Herald Medical Writer

The state and federal money would be used to track the epidemic, educate the public, and set up testing sites in 16 Florida counties to screen 125,000 possible victims in the first year.

As of March 18, AIDS had afflicted more than 8,853 people nationwide, robbing them of their resistance to infections, said Gus Sermos, who is tracking Florida's epidemic for the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

In Florida, doctors have diagnosed a total of 636 cases of AIDS, Sermos said. Of those, 359 victims were diagnosed in Dade, 83 in Broward and 27 in Monroe counties. But the toll continues to mount in every corner of the state.

Most AIDS victims are homosexual or bisexual men; also at high risk of infection are drug abusers, hemophiliacs and Haitians. But AIDS now is spreading through heterosexual contact, Sermos said. "It's incredible how encompassing it's getting."

To battle the epidemic, Secretary of Health David Pingree last week asked Gov. Bob Graham to set aside $581,917 to track cases, counsel victims, and educate the public. Days earlier, state health officials had requested $1.3 million from the federal government.

In a letter Friday, Pingree said the money would be used to open 16 screening clinics where people with a high risk of contracting AIDS could have their blood tested for evidence of the virus believed to cause the ailment.

That virus is known as HTLV-III, for human T-lymphotrophic virus. Doctors believe the virus is spread in blood, clotting factor for hemophilia, semen and possibly saliva. Though there is no test for the virus itself, the federal government this month approved two test kits that detect antibodies to the virus in the blood.

And health officials still don't know what percentage of those with HTLV III will develop AIDS -- though scientists estimate about 10 percent might.

In Florida, the South Florida Blood Service has obtained the test kits, said spokesman Tom Donia. The blood service plans to test donations, 2,500 units per week, to prevent contaminated blood from getting into the community blood bank.

But the blood bank is the only agency in Florida that has the $2 test, so Donia has announced the blood bank will not notify donors that their blood contains evidence of the virus.

There are two reasons: fear that possible AIDS victims will give blood to get tested, and also reluctance to start a panic when tests begin to come back positive -- because about 30 percent of tests show infection when, in fact, there is none.

That is why the state has requested money to start non-blood bank screening clinics, Donia said. Potential AIDS victims could have their blood tested -- and tested again if necessary. They would also be able to obtain counseling and other services.

Treating AIDS once it is diagnosed is expensive -- costing an average of $42,000 per patient in hospital bills alone, Pingree wrote
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