Secret AIDS Tests Conducted on 2,000
An Alameda County health official last year conducted secret AIDS tests to determine the rate of public infection, and he claims the disease may be far more widespread than generally realized, it was reported Wednesday.
Dr. Robert Benjamin, chief of the Alameda County Bureau of Communicable Disease, told the San Jose Mercury News that he conducted the tests on about 2,000 unsuspecting people--women applying for marriage licenses, visitors to local venereal disease clinics and youngsters in Juvenile Hall.
Benjamin said 0.5% of the blood samples taken from women applying for marriage licenses contained AIDS antibodies--the same percentage found in female visitors to VD clinics. None of the juveniles at Juvenile Hall tested positive, he said.
“Right now the general population still thinks this is a disease of gay white men in San Francisco, New York, Boston, L.A. and Florida,” Benjamin said.
Although the tests were conducted without knowledge of whose blood was being sampled, state law prohibits such tests without the person’s consent.
Benjamin contends that the blind tests are crucial in discovering where AIDS has spread and in trying to stop the disease.
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