Miami Herald (MH) - Friday July 19, 1991
John Monk; Herald Washington Bureau

The proposal, which passed 81-18, was opposed by the American Medical Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. Both Florida senators, Democrat Bob Graham and Republican Connie Mack, voted for the measure, which was introduced by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.

The Senate also passed, 99-0, a measure that pressures states to require health care workers who perform high risk treatments involving exposure to blood to undergo AIDS tests. The legislation requires any HIV-infected health care worker to notify his patients of that fact or stop treating them.

States that don't enact the guidelines, recommended Monday by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, would lose federal health care payments, under the measure. Those payments involve hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The Senate's AIDS-control measures have far to go before becoming law. The House has not yet considered the proposals.

The Senate action on the two proposals came after a sharp debate between Helms and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "Sen. Helms is reacting out of fear, but his fear is not shared by the medical experts of the nation's public health service in the Bush Administration," said Kennedy, who opposed the measure.

Criminal penalties would just make the nation's 600,000 doctors, 150,000 dentists and two million nurses conceal their AIDS infection, should they have the virus, and "drive the epidemic underground," Kennedy said.

Medical authorities say the chances of getting AIDS from a health care worker are minuscule. Only five Americans of the more than 182,000 who have AIDS are known to have contracted the virus from a health care worker.

But Helms said such statistics are meaningless to those who have contracted AIDS from a doctor.

"Don't try to tell that to Kimberly Bergalis," said Helms. In recent months, Bergalis -- a 23-year-old Fort Pierce woman who authorities say contracted AIDS from her dentist -- has become a national symbol of the risk of catching AIDS from a health care worker.

Siding with Kennedy, Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., told senators that it is ridiculous to threaten AIDS-infected people with prison.

"You think any one of these people who have what is already a fatal disease are going to be deterred by a long jail term -- come on," Durenberger said.

"Prevention and precautions eliminate risk -- fines and jail terms do not," Durenberger said.

But, said Helms, concealing an AIDS infection from a patient "is a criminal offense if there ever was one."

Fear of taking an unpopular position was the reason so many senators voted with Helms, critics said.

"They felt it would be difficult to explain to their constituents why they voted against it, even though there were very good reasons to," said Carisa Cunningham, spokeswoman for the Washington-based AIDS Action Council, which represents AIDS service organizations.

The other proposal, backed by Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, contained provisions requiring state medical boards to discipline AIDS-infected health care workers who don't inform their patients, Kennedy said.

That proposal requires states to enforce guidelines set forth Monday by the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control.

CAPTION: PHOTO Jesse HELMS

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