Hansen’s Disease

The prominence--including a page-wide headline--given Nov. 28 to an assertion that AIDS victims “are not lepers” was a grievous injustice to sufferers from Hansen’s disease (leprosy), and a gross misrepresentation of the facts.

The clear implication was that AIDS is less communicable than leprosy, and that AIDS carriers are less of a public health hazard than people with leprosy. The truth is quiet the opposite.

Leprosy is transmitted only at some stages by prolonged physical contact in combination with other, atypical, physiological conditions. AIDS, by contrast, can be transmitted instantly by a single sexual contact or blood admixture.

AIDS victims do not help their cause by propagating medieval misconceptions about other diseases.

GLADWIN HILL

Los Angeles