Senate OKs Jail, Fines for Doctors Who Hide AIDS

Responding to public fears, the Senate voted 81 to 18 Thursday to put health care workers in prison if they perform invasive procedures without telling their patients that they carry the AIDS virus.

The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), would impose mandatory 10-year prison terms and fines of at least $10,000 on nurses, dentists and physicians who violate the law.

The Senate also unanimously approved a less sweeping plan recommended by the Bush Administration that would virtually require a limited number of health-care workers to be tested for AIDS and would prevent those known to have the disease from performing some high-risk procedures.

What finally emerges from Congress on these issues, however, will not be resolved until Senate and House negotiators reconcile differences between the Senate bill--an appropriations measure for the Treasury and Postal Service to which the AIDS amendments are attached--and the House version of the same bill, which contains no such AIDS provisions.

Helms rallied the senators to his amendment by invoking the specter of the dying Kimberly Bergalis, a 23-year-old Ft. Pierce, Fla., woman, who apparently contracted AIDS from her dentist.

“She (Bergalis) doesn’t have a chance, so I don’t think 10 years’ time is severe when you consider what these people are willing to do to innocent patients,” Helms said. “Don’t tell me this is too severe. I’m so old fashioned I believe in horse-whipping.”

After adopting Helms’ plan, the Senate voted, 99 to 0, to embrace the Administration’s approach to dealing with health care workers infected with the AIDS virus who perform procedures that expose them to patients’ blood. Later, it passed the appropriations bill, 91 to 8.

The Administration plan for infected health care workers would implement Centers for Disease Control guidelines issued earlier this week by the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the guidelines, states could take away medical licenses of those who perform invasive procedures if they refuse to be tested for the AIDS virus.

Health care workers who test positive for the virus would have to stop performing such treatments unless a panel of experts consented and patients were informed.

States would be required to adopt the guidelines within a year. If they refuse, they would lose their federal Public Health Service grants.

The CDC guidelines call also for renewed emphasis on infection-control procedures, including sterilization of equipment, careful disposal of needles and use of protective clothing or gloves to help prevent the spread of disease.

Both amendments are efforts to block the spread of AIDS from health care workers to patients--a risk that the CDC says is virtually nonexistent. But public opinion polls show overwhelming support for testing medical personnel for the AIDS virus.

In fact, only one health care worker--the Florida dentist thought to have infected Bergalis and four other patients--has been linked to doctor-to-patient transmission of the virus.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) argued in vain that Helms’ amendment would do more harm than good by giving the public a false sense of security and by prompting AIDS-infected health care workers to avoid testing and, therefore, detection.

Helms, bluntly addressing the political sensitivities of his colleagues, asserted: “If you want to protect the people of America, vote for this amendment. If you want to listen to the homosexual lobby, vote against it.”

Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) responded that the risk of contracting the AIDS virus from a health care worker is “infinitesimal.” And he added: “We need to cure AIDS, not criminalize it. We shouldn’t fool the electorate with a policy that just won’t work.”

Many scientists and gay-rights groups were appalled by the Senate’s action. Dr. Mervyn F. Silverman, president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, accused Helms of pursuing “politics based on prejudice” and added:

“Unfortunately, other senators are marching in lock step because they are looking at the ballot box and not looking at science.”

Tim McFeeley, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund--which calls itself the largest gay and lesbian organization in the nation--said, “Today’s vote points out that AFRAIDS is still more virulent than AIDS.”

The latest government count shows that, as of March 31, there were 6,436 health care workers in the United States known to have AIDS, including 703 physicians, 47 surgeons, 171 dentists or hygienists and 1,358 nurses.