Developments in Brief : Some Doctors Doubt AIDS Conclusions

In a survey of private physicians’ attitudes toward AIDS, nearly half said they would advise against receiving donated blood and 28% of them called for quarantining AIDS patients.

“These results indicate a skepticism among physicians about the conclusions reached by researchers and other public health authorities,” said A. J. Vogl, editor of MD magazine, which released the survey last week.

“There are discrepancies between doctors in practice and the ivory tower sorts, but this is extreme,” he said.

In the survey, 45% said they would advise family members to shun donated blood if they are about to undergo elective surgery. Instead, the doctors would urge relatives to have their own blood stored in the weeks before the operation.

Red Cross and public health officials have long sought to assure the public that the blood supply is free of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus because all donated blood is tested for antibodies that would indicate the presence of the virus.

The survey said 78% of those polled would like to see the government test high-risk individuals and then track down the sex partners of those who test positive--a measure already rejected by the U.S. surgeon general and the American Medical Assn.