Fear of AIDS

The medical problems involved in controlling AIDS and seeking a cure are difficult enough without public fears being fanned even further by misguided attempts to protect people from dangers that do not exist.

But that’s what is happening in Laguna Beach in another AIDS controversy, this time over whether real estate agents should disclose to potential buyers that a property belonged to a victim of AIDS.

It’s a false issue, another in a series of social reactions rooted in anxious suspicion.

The fear of AIDS is understandable and prudent steps must be taken to avoid its spread. Where a clear danger exists, the community has every right to take protective measures. But the mere fact that someone with AIDS lived in a home doesn’t make that residence uninhabitable or, according to medical authorities, dangerous.

AIDS is a disease spread only through intimate sexual contact or through tainted blood. Medical authorities say it cannot be contracted by merely touching an object an AIDS patient has touched or being in a place an AIDS patient has been. There is no recorded case of anyone coming down with AIDS who even lived with AIDS patients, as long as there was no sexual contact.

The real question is: What, if any, danger exists to a potential property buyer or renter? The answer is none.