Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1985. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Friday, June 28, 1985
Michael H. Cottman, Herald Staff Writer
Blood donation centers until now were the only places where people could take the AIDS antibody test. The alternative testing centers are designed to make sure that people who think they have been exposed to AIDS won't crowd into blood banks.
"We don't want people going to blood banks to find out if they have the virus," Daniel Richmond, a supervisor with the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services -- which is coordinating the testing -- said Thursday. "That's why we have alternative sites."
Specialists will be testing for the antibody to the Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus III, (HTLV III) the virus that is believed to cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
"If a pint of blood donated by a person has the virus and that blood is given to a person during a transfusion, then that person will have the virus also," Richmond said.
"This is not a test for AIDS," he said. "It's a test for the virus." Richmond said as many as 2 million people across the country are carriers of the virus HTLV III.
Because there are 810 cases of AIDS in Florida and 405 cases in Dade, social workers are concerned that the disease will continue to spread through the county.
Social workers believe that calls for the tests (1-800-FLA-AIDS) may come in slowly because many homosexuals, the largest AIDS risk group, feel that employers may learn their names and discriminate against them.
"It is strictly confidential," Richmond said. "We also encourage people to call for an appointment."
AIDS destroys the body's natural defenses to disease and leaves the infected person at risk for developing many diseases that are not found in healthy people.
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