Workload at AIDS Test Center Doubles

The Orange County AIDS testing center’s workload has more than doubled in the past three months as heterosexuals, many of them “hysterical” with fear that they may have contracted the fatal disease, have flooded the facility, county health officials said Thursday.

Penny Weismuller, county AIDS coordinator, said an average of 300 people a month were tested at the 17th Street center in Santa Ana between June and November of last year. That figure jumped to 359 in December and 527 in January. In February, 754 people had been tested as of Thursday, she said.

“There are people that are being tested who are coming in because they had a single extramarital contact three or four years ago and they are so afraid that they are going to test positive for HIV (the AIDS virus),” she said. “But we haven’t had a single positive test (for that type of case) yet.”

Despite the increase in testing, Weismuller said, there is no backlog: Patients are tested the same day they come in and get results within 10 days. She said two additional rooms have been cleared at the center to make way for nurses drawing blood from clients.

The fact that more and more low-risk people want the test is putting a strain on the system, Weismuller said, but she added that she doesn’t want to discourage heterosexuals from using the clinic, which is at 1725 17th St. Those who have had contact with bisexual males, anonymous sexual relations or sex with intravenous drug users could be at risk, she said.

Weismuller said that 24 of the 123 gay males tested in January had positive results; five of 52 bisexual males and eight of 69 drug users also tested positive. By contrast, of the 149 heterosexuals with multiple partners who were tested, none of the women and only two of the men had positive test results.

Testing positive means only that a person has been exposed to the AIDS virus; it does not mean the person has contracted the disease. Many people who are exposed to the virus never develop AIDS.

There have been 375 confirmed AIDS cases in Orange County since record-keeping began, and 229 of the people have died, according to Health Care Agency statistics.

Dr. Thomas Prendergast, head of epidemiology for the county Health Care Agency, said a backlog eventually will develop if the numbers of people wanting to be tested continue to increase.

“We don’t have an infinite capacity,” he said, adding that some recent articles about AIDS have portrayed its impact on heterosexuals inaccurately. “I believe we should be telling people that it’s everybody’s concern but, at least in Orange County, it’s not everybody’s disease.” He cited statistics from the American Red Cross, which screens blood donors. Of the last 12,000 prospective donors who described themselves as heterosexuals, none tested positive for AIDS during the screening, according to American Red Cross spokeswoman Barbara Lohman.

Prendergast said he is worried that the increased testing will cut down on the amount of counseling that can be given at the center. “To get that many people through, they have to spend a little less time with each person,” he said.

AIDS support groups also reported a substantial increase in the number of calls from heterosexuals. Parrie Graham, executive director of the Aids Services Foundation, said she believes the calls flow in faster with each news article about the disease’s potential effect on heterosexuals.

“I can tell you that our number of hysterical phone calls have increased four or five times as many as usual,” she said, adding that average daily calls rose from two in January to 10 this month.

At the Gay and Lesbian Center of Orange County, executive director Werner Kuhn said statistics are compiled quarterly and therefore aren’t available for 1987. However, he said, calls from heterosexuals increased 20% during the final quarter of 1986 over the previous three months and referrals to the AIDS testing center in Santa Ana jumped about 40%. And phone operators say the trend continues, he said.

Gay and Lesbian Center workers attempt to spread a specific message, Kuhn said, “that anyone who engages in non-monogamous sex or shares a needle is at risk.”

Kuhn added that he doesn’t see the increase as necessarily a negative development.

“What I’m feeling is that the fact that more people are going to get voluntary tests shows that our education is working,” he said. “It shows that people, after hearing about AIDS, are realizing that it could affect them. So this is a good development.”

Both Kuhn and Graham said they don’t anticipate any leveling off in the current demand for the test.

The county facility tests people on an anonymous basis, and the service is provided free, Prendergast said. That anonymity factor is vital, Kuhn pointed out, to prevent any discrimination against clients in housing, medical insurance or employment.

Prendergast stressed that people can go to their own doctors for the tests and have them use the county’s laboratory.

People are waiting as long as six weeks for an appointment at an AIDS testing center in Los Angeles. Part I, Page 34.