Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Friday, June 16, 1989
The analysis was done by Dr. Bernard Turnock and Chester Kelly of the Illinois Department of Public Health and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The mandatory testing cost 70,846 applicants $2.5 million in fees from January to June 1988. Only eight of them tested positive.
The Illinois Legislature has been discussing rescinding the law because of protests over the testing for the deadly disease virus.
The report also said the law drove many Illinois residents to other states to obtain marriage licenses and has the potential to unnecessarily disrupt lives through false positive test results.
In addition, people about to be married are far less likely to test positive for acquired immune deficiency syndrome than some other groups and effort should be concentrated in areas where it is most needed, the researchers concluded.
"The Illinois experience with premarital testing provides a strong argument against widespread mandatory or publicly supported HIV antibody screening of low prevalence population," the authors concluded.
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