Hospital to Halt AIDS Test for Care Program

Centinela Hospital announced Tuesday that it will no longer require AIDS testing for admission to its drug and alcohol treatment program, concluding a 2-year-old lawsuit that has significantly expanded legal protections for those exposed to the deadly human immunodeficiency virus.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said a settlement on behalf of a man denied admission to Centinela’s LifeStarts program in 1987 calls for the hospital to drop its longstanding policy of refusing admission in the program to patients who have tested positive for the virus.

The man, identified only as John Doe, had been admitted to the Inglewood hospital for treatment of a chronic alcohol problem. He learned only when he was tested shortly after admission that he had been exposed to the AIDS virus and would have to leave the program.

Doe has never exhibited any symptoms of the fatal disease.

No Symptoms

The case led to an important ruling in Los Angeles last July from U.S. District Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, who held that people who test positive for the virus (seropositive), but who do not exhibit any symptoms are nonetheless covered under a federal anti-discrimination statute for the handicapped.

In the first federal court ruling of its kind, Rymer held that seropositive people without symptoms of acquired immune deficiency syndrome are protected against discrimination that is based solely on an ungrounded fear that they will be contagious to others. Public health experts filed extensive written testimony in the case, indicating that the disease cannot normally be contracted through casual contact.

Until Tuesday’s settlement, however, John Doe would still have had to go to trial to prove that Centinela had no valid reasons for excluding him from the program, other than a speculative fear of contagion.

Hospital officials had cited the possibility of sexual contact with other patients and the availability of an alternative, outpatient program for HIV-positive patients.

Lawyers for the plaintiff countered that the hospital should adopt procedures for all patients designed to minimize the risk of spreading disease.

Shared Needles

Under the settlement, Centinela has agreed to do just that: taking precautions under the assumption that all patients are potentially contagious and counseling all patients about the risks of unsafe sex and shared intravenous needles, Lambda lawyer Mickey J. Wheatley said.

“I think finally when we presented all the public testimony and evidence, they realized that, in fact, there is a strong public health consensus toward a voluntary approach to preventing AIDS transmission,” Wheatley said at a Los Angeles news conference announcing the settlement.

Paul Hoffman, legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said the case “adds to the growing body of legal precedent” in support of the rights of AIDS victims.

“Because access to chemical dependency programs is crucial to HIV seropositives for their health, as well as their ability to refrain from engaging in high-risk activities, this settlement represents the elimination of barriers for those HIV seropositives in need of these recovery programs,” Hoffman said.

In a brief statement, Centinela Hospital officials said they decided to drop the testing requirement because of recent changes in infectious disease guidelines and regulations by the Centers for Disease Control and the state Department of Health, in addition to recent federal court decisions.

“The hospital’s policy will now be the same as other hospitals providing substance abuse treatment across the nation,” the statement said.

No Details

Both the plaintiff’s lawyers and the hospital declined to discuss other details of the settlement, including any individual settlement made on John Doe’s behalf.

In a telephone interview, Doe said he was “very proud” that a settlement had been reached.

“It made me become stronger to realize that with this lawsuit, I won one battle,” he said. “And then I also must win another battle. And that is one day, if I ever have some kind of opportunistic infection, I will be able to conquer death, hopefully.”