City-County Task Force Urges AIDS Testing for Gays : Screening Not an ‘Enemy,’ Doctor Says; Negative Results Seen as Incentive for Caution

Despite growing concern in the gay community over discrimination against AIDS victims, a city-county task force has recommended that homosexuals have themselves tested for the disease--especially if the test would help persuade them to engage in safe sexual behavior.

“The test shouldn’t be viewed as a major enemy of the gay community,” said Dr. Neil R. Schram, chairman of the Los Angeles City-County AIDS Task Force. He added that anonymous and confidential testing for the AIDS-related antibody HTLV-III is available at state-mandated blood testing centers set up specifically for AIDS testing in Hollywood and Long Beach.

Schram, at a news conference Thursday, said that a negative result in the test for antibodies might persuade an individual to refrain from high-risk sexual behavior in order to avoid exposure.

Only Means Exposure

Presence of the AIDS antibodies indicates that a person has been exposed to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but it does not necessarily mean they will contract the disease.

Although instances of discrimination against AIDS victims are cropping up across the country among some employers, insurance companies and schools, Schram said that such actions are unrelated to the confidential tests at the blood testing sites.

“It’s not the testing at the alternate sites that’s the danger, rather that the test will be required of people before they get jobs or travel (to other countries) or apply for insurance or get married,” he said.

No Danger From Test

He added that those at risk should not lose sight of the fact that the real danger is not the test but contracting the deadly virus.

According to the task force, several ongoing studies suggest that the incidence of AIDS continues to rise at about a 10% rate despite a marked decrease in the number of sexual partners among homosexual and bisexual men.

“Thus, while the number of sexual partners is on the decline, the chance that any given sexual partner is infected with the AIDS virus has risen significantly,” according to the task force report.

The task force’s recommendation is that homosexual and bisexual men not involved in monogamous relationships dating back to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1977 limit themselves “all of the time” to low-risk sexual behavior, which rules out anything more intimate than massage or masturbation.