Miami Herald - Saturday, OCT 19 1985
Nolan Walters, Herald Washington Bureau

But military officials still are working out details and haven't decided when they will start the broader testing or how they will deal with career soldiers who show indications of exposure, the source said.

"The program that's now in effect for recruits will be expanded to all personnel over a period of time," said a Pentagon official who asked not to be named. Recruits who test positive now are barred from enlistment.

Based on experience with previous tests, the new program could identify some 5,500 current military personnel as having been exposed to the fatal disease. For example, an Air Force spokeswoman said three of 3,000 recruits tested so far have been denied enlistment.

The decision to conduct mass testing overrules last month's recommendation by the Pentagon's own scientific advisory group, the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, that said testing should be confined to recruits and personnel assigned overseas.

"I think, in the first place, (mass testing) is a tremendous undertaking, and it's going to be very difficult to accomplish," said Dr. Richard Hornick, a board member from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, N.Y.

While a Pentagon spokeswoman said no expanded AIDS testing has been announced officially, "we have no problem with" reports of mass testing of all military personnel.

AIDS -- or acquired immune deficiency syndrome -- has claimed about 14,000 American victims since the disease was first identified in 1980, and about half of those victims have died. AIDS destroys the body's natural defenses, and leaves victims prey to a variety of infections and cancers.

Most victims have been homosexuals or intravenous drug users, although health officials say mounting evidence shows that the disease can also be communicated by heterosexuals. The disease is passed through blood or body fluids.

Against a backdrop of ethical and legal questions, the Defense Department has been struggling to develop a policy to deal with AIDS "for months," the Pentagon source said.

Activist groups like the National Gay Task Force oppose mass AIDS testing because military doctors can't guarantee their patients confidentiality and because regulations bar known homosexuals from military service.

A positive reaction to the test, which isn't 100 percent accurate, might become a basis for discharging military personnel under less than honorable conditions or of forcing military personnel to reveal sexual partners, the group contends.

"I think that (mass testing) is setting a very dangerous precedent," said Jeffrey Levi, director of political and governmental affairs for the task force. Other employers may be encouraged by the Pentagon's decision to begin their own AIDS testing, he said.

The military contends that personnel exposed to the AIDS virus might be more susceptible to diseases while stationed overseas and that they might be at higher risk from the live-virus vaccines routinely administered to personnel.

Tests for exposure to the AIDS virus began this month for the 550,000 recruits who annually join the active duty or reserve forces. Tests of military personnel volunteering to donate blood have identified between two and three of every 1,000 tested as having been exposured to the AIDS virus, HTLV-III.

The military AIDS testing is a three-fold process. If a person shows positive on the first test, called ELISA, which identifies enzymes associated with AIDS, they are retested and then given a third enzyme test, called the Western Blot.

So far, 108 active-duty military personnel have been diagnosed as AIDS victims, said the Pentagon source. When they no longer can perform military duties, they have been medically discharged so that they can continue to be treated by military hospitals or can qualify for Veterans Administration care. About half of the military AIDS victims have already died.

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