Blood Tests Hold Key to Control of AIDS Epidemic, Researcher Says

The AIDS epidemic now sweeping the United States can be controlled only if individuals who believe they may be infected with the virus--mostly homosexual males--voluntarily take a blood test that indicates the presence of the virus, a prominent researcher said Sunday.

“Continued transmission of the AIDS virus is unacceptable. The present methods of control are failing,” Dr. Donald Francis, a Centers for Disease Control expert, told a predominantly gay audience of health workers.

“The misery we are seeing today is only the beginning. We must start at once to place order in place of chaos.”

Francis, who is assistant director of laboratory science in viral diseases, said he was expressing his personal opinions and not necessarily those of the Centers. He predicted that the gay population eventually will accept the blood test as a key means of controlling acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

The test, which was recently licensed by the federal government, indicates whether an individual has been exposed to the AIDS virus and therefore may be at risk of developing the disease or passing it on to others through sex or blood donation.

Gay organizations have been nearly unanimous in opposing the test on grounds that people who test positive could be discriminated against by health insurers and by employers.

Francis cited statistics indicating that the virus is spreading widely, among heterosexuals as well.

Conference Opens Today

He spoke at a workshop dealing with ways to reduce the risk of acquiring AIDS. The workshop heralds the opening today of a three-day international conference on AIDS to be attended by researchers from around the world.

Dr. Neil Schram, chairman of the Los Angeles City-County AIDS Task Force and a participant with Francis in the workshop, said later that he believes the test is not necessary in order to control the epidemic.

“The most effective way is for each person at risk to protect both himself and his partner from infection” by following so-called safe sex practices, Schram said in an interview after the session. Schram is a former president of Physicians for Human Rights, a gay group.

“We’re not saying don’t take the test and don’t protect yourself and your partner,” Schram said. “We are saying the risks of the test far override its benefits, provided the individual protects himself and his partner.”

Currently more than 9,000 victims have been reported in the United States, about three-quarters of whom are male homosexuals. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 300,000 people already are infected by the virus in the United States, and that at least 30,000 of them will develop AIDS. Most of those infected will die, the Centers said. Francis said that the number will increase because transmission of the virus has not been stopped.

Studies have shown that a high percentage of gays--as many as 66% in San Francisco and 55% in Los Angeles--have been infected.

Risk Factor

Although gays have sharply reduced their number of sexual partners, the chances of encountering an infected individual is as great as before because of the large increase in the percentage of infected people, Francis said.

According to the researcher, it will be three to five years before a vaccine or drugs effective against AIDS are ready for clinical use.

“Control is the only answer. But the tools for control are very limited now,” Francis said in an interview.

He said he agrees that the objections raised by the gay organizations for opposing blood tests may be real ones.

“But the issue is what can individuals do and society do to stop the transmission of the virus. We need to look at every tool.”

Another panelist, Bruce Voeller, Ph.D, president of the Mariposa Foundation in Pasadena and a founder of the National Gay Task Force, said he believes gay men should take the test.

In an upcoming article in The Advocate, a Los Angeles gay publication, Voeller advises homosexuals to take the test because “we need to know (whether the result is positive or negative) . . . in order to increase our odds of being among the survivors and in order to protect others.”

Because gays have been advised by their leaders not to take the test at blood donation centers, Voeller said one solution may be to set up alternative test sites, separate from blood banks, where confidentiality could be protected.

The Centers for Disease Control has made $12 million available for setting up such centers in large population areas.