Miami Herald - Sunday, June 23, 1985
Marc Fisher, Herald Staff Writer

But Jaffe said a survey of 7,000 homosexual men in San Francisco shows that more than half of the men who appeared to have no AIDS symptoms had some sign of the AIDS virus. The conference at the James L. Knight Convention Center, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and more than 30 South Florida health groups, was more crowded than most rock concerts there. A sell-out audience included more than 3,000 nurses and more than 500 physicians. Florida has the third largest number of AIDS cases in the nation, following New York and California. About 1,000 of the country's 11,000 diagnosed AIDS cases are in Florida, and most of those are in Dade and Broward counties. Jaffe said he had "painted a fairly grim picture. But there may be reasons for hope." He said gay men have drastically changed their sexual habits, becoming less promiscuous and cutting back on acts such as anal intercourse that are most likely to transmit the virus. And Jaffe said the blood test for the HTLV-III virus will virtually eliminate the danger of transmission of AIDS by blood transfusions. But the recently developed blood test is also causing problems, doctors said. The researchers and public health experts denounced the city of Hollywood's plan, announced last week, to screen job applicants for the AIDS virus. The Hollywood City Commission Wednesday approved a plan that makes the Broward city the first in the nation to include a test for the AIDS virus in pre-employment physical exams. The city decided to go ahead with the screening despite protests from physicians who explained that the blood test finds only the HTLV-III virus, not the disease. "There are more than one million people in this country with the HTLV-III virus," said Dr. Mervyn Silverman, former director of the San Francisco health department. "To have those people eliminated from the employment pool would be a tragedy." Silverman said use of the blood test in the fashion Hollywood intends is illegal in California. Saturday's conference was the ninth such event held around the nation in an effort to educate health workers about the disease. "There is no cure," Silverman said. "There is no vaccine. The only line of defense is education and, from there, prevention."

Speakers sought to show health workers that AIDS is not a homosexual disease, even if more than 70 percent of the victims so far have had extensive homosexual contact. Dr. Clifford Lane, senior investigator for the National Institute of Health, noted that in Central Africa, AIDS has been mainly a heterosexual disease. And he said the unusually large incidence of AIDS among residents of Belle Glade "is still a mystery." Health workers have a long way to go to alleviate public fears and myths about AIDS, said Dr. Ginette Dreyfuss, a University of Miami psychiatrist. She quoted a New York survey in which more than half the respondents said that homosexuals struck with AIDS are getting what they deserve.

"This is not a gay disease, not a hemophiliac's disease," Silverman said. "This is everyone's disease."

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1985. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .