Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - November 13, 1983
The officials "have given up tallying" the number of telephone inquiries about the frail, wide-eyed patient at Jackson Memorial Hospital, said Jay Kassack, district administrator for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.
Hundreds of calls have been received, including some from Canada and Germany, Mr. Kassack said.
He said newspapers in Oslo and in England had also inquired about the unidentified child, one of fewer than 100 children in the nation who have AIDS, an often fatal illness that prevents the body's immune system from resisting disease. Interviews Are Planned
Social workers will begin the formal process of identifying prospective foster parents through home studies and interviews, Mr. Kassack said. He said it would take at least two weeks to place the child, who doctors say has no more than three years to live.
Some people offered money to help take care of the girl, who was abandoned by her father. Her mother, a 33- year-old Haitian immigrant who died three weeks ago, was diagnosed as having AIDS.
Social workers had despaired of finding a home for the girl until national publicity brought a spate of callers. Those originally interviewed were afraid of contracting the disease.
Homosexuals, Haitians, abusers of injectable drugs and hemophiliacs are the most likely AIDS victims, according to Federal officials.
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