AIDS WATCH : Injudicious Action

Despite one of the most comprehensive public-health education efforts of our time, some people still haven’t shed the prejudice born of myths about the casual transmission of AIDS. When they hold positions of influence over others--including people with AIDS or HIV infection--they compound the harm done by that ignorance.

On Monday, San Diego Municipal Court Judge Larry Stirling ordered his courtroom cleansed after an appearance by an HIV-infected defendant. After the unidentified defendant departed, Stirling, a former state senator, ordered a cleanup crew to mop around the chair where the man had been sitting and to spray window cleaner on areas he and his attorney had touched.

While waiting for the workers, he ordered a banister that might be touched by others covered with butcher paper. Later he asked a court employee, in open court, to report back on the cleanser’s effectiveness against the AIDS virus. The request would have been laughable if it wasn’t so dangerously ignorant.

Despite widespread agreement by health experts that AIDS is transmitted only by exchanging bodily fluids or sharing hypodermic needles, Stirling said that he was concerned about “emissions” from the coughing defendant.

Stirling’s offensive behavior amounts to condemnation of an entire group. His argument that this man posed a health threat to others is specious, and he should know it.

Judge Stirling needs training in the facts about AIDS transmission. And a sensitivity seminar wouldn’t hurt, either.