Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Tuesday, 2 February 1988.
Kunst called Monday for $50 million in AIDS spending by the state next year, compared to this year's $13 million budget, with the new money going for research, education and social services for AIDS sufferers.
The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has asked Gov. Bob Martinez for $22 million in new AIDS money next year, according to Bob Williams, assistant HRS secretary for programs.
Kunst also criticized a proposal HRS is developing to confine AIDS carriers who knowingly infect others in special hospital wards, saying the real problem is transmission by people who don't even know they are infected.
By even discussing the idea, HRS is associating itself with concentration camps in the minds of people who most depend on the agency for AIDS testing and treatment, Kunst said.
"In Miami, they're already calling HRS the HR-SS," Kunst said, referring to Hitler's stormtroopers.
Williams maintained the proposal is still in preliminary stages and would be applied only against known AIDS carriers as a last resort.
Meanwhile, a state senator announced he is preparing legislation to repeal a 1985 law allowing state health officials to offer voluntary, anonymous AIDS testing for people worried they might have the disease.
Sen. Don Childers, D-West Palm Beach, said during hearings by the Senate Select Committee on AIDS that he is worried state or local authorities would be held liable if someone who tests positive for AIDS is allowed to work in or attend the schools, for example, and transmits the disease to someone else.
"Because of this law, we are putting everyone at risk that may come in contact with a person that has HIV (the AIDS virus)," Childers said.
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