Nevada Won’t Name Brothel Where Woman Tested Positive for AIDS Antibodies

The state attorney general has refused to release the name of a brothel that employed a prostitute who tested positive for AIDS antibodies.

Bill Isaeff, chief deputy attorney general, said the information is in confidential documents protected from public disclosure by state law. He added that releasing the name of the bordello could lead to the discovery of the prostitute’s identity, which is also protected under law.

“There is a reasonable legal basis for the decision,” Isaeff said Wednesday.

Although Nevada is the only state with legalized prostitution, the issue of release of names of persons who test positive for AIDS antibodies has arisen elsewhere. Positive tests mean that the carriers are capable of transmitting the AIDS virus, although they may not develop the disease themselves.

“Every state seems to be wrestling with the problem,” said Dr. William Darrow of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. “The chances of a woman who has tested AIDS-virus-positive infecting a man is greater than zero. But nobody really knows what it is--100%, 50%, 1%.”

Darrow, who is directing a study of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in women prostitutes, said that only a few cases of AIDS being passed from a woman to a man have been reported.

“Some people can have even hundreds of exposures to AIDS virus carriers and never get infected,” Darrow said. “Others only one. What causes AIDS to be passed on to one person while not to another? That’s the $64,000 question.”

Earlier this week, state officials reported that three prostitutes applying for jobs in different legal brothels tested positive for exposure to the AIDS virus.

While two of the women were not allowed to work where they applied, the third woman worked a single weekend before being fired.

State Health Division Administrator Larry Matheis said he believes that prostitutes pose only a minimal public health risk.

“After weighing everything, expert technicians decided they (the prostitute’s customers) were probably at no risk,” Matheis said. “They thought it was highly unlikely that she was communicable.”