Pentagon adopts Major Changes in AIDS Policy

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger has approved major new changes in the Pentagon’s AIDS policy including provisions that allow authorities to revoke security clearances and deny access to classified information to military personnel who test positive for the disease.

Despite changes that give military leaders more authority to control the assignments of men and women who test positive for the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus, the new policy represents a defeat for top Army officials who have argued for the dismissal of any military person whose tests show exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

In another provision, the new rules exclude the Pentagon’s 1 million civilian employees from the mandatory AIDS tests that have been imposed on recruits, active-duty military personnel and service-academy students.

Judge Upholds Tests

The announcement of the Defense Department ruling on civilians came Wednesday as a federal judge upheld the State Department’s AIDS testing program for its employees. U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell denied a request from the American Federation of Government Employees that the foreign service suspend the testing program on the grounds it violates the privacy of its workers.

The Pentagon’s nine-page set of guidelines, approved after months of debate among high-ranking military leaders, medical officials and legal staff, was announced Wednesday by Dr. William Mayer, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

The policy also addresses reserve troops for the first time, restricting the service of those who test positive for the virus and denying reservists medical treatment for the disease at military hospitals and clinics.

Disciplinary Action

The new rules also state that military personnel who test positive for the HIV infection who are found “not to have complied with lawfully ordered preventive-medicine procedures” are subject to disciplinary action, including criminal charges, Mayer said.

The Defense Department will continue its policy of allowing military personnel to remain in the services until symptoms of the disease become severe enough to affect their work.

The new policy, however, gives military supervisors authority to remove men and women from a wide array of jobs if they test positive for HIV, including “flight status or other duties requiring a high degree of stability or alertness such as explosive-ordnance disposal or deep-sea diving.”