Calls Flood AIDS Hot Lines, Clinics After Announcement

In the wake of Earvin (Magic) Johnson’s announcement that he has contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, local AIDS activists and health officials said Friday that the number of calls and requests for AIDS tests had more than tripled, as people worry that they, too, might be infected.

“We are absolutely inundated,” said Binnie Callender, chief of the county health department’s Office of AIDS Coordination. “It’s not hysteria, it’s concern and heightened awareness. People think if Magic Johnson is infected, they could be.”

Here and nationwide, the news prompted a rush of inquiries that health officials said reflects greatly increased fear over the escalating rate of heterosexual transmission of the virus.

People stormed--and dozens phoned--the county’s main testing site as soon as the basketball star finished his press conference Thursday. In the one hour that the testing center remained open after the announcement, 25 people were tested, or about five times the usual number.

At the same facility Friday, nearly 200 San Diegans came in for anonymous testing--or a 350% increase over the typical number, said Steve Hart, the county’s alternative test site coordinator.

“It hit really close to home to hear Magic Johnson was infected. It was like family. I hadn’t known anybody until now who had the AIDS virus,” said Dan Reynolds, a 26-year-old college student who had his blood tested for the AIDS-causing virus Friday.

At the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, officials said calls to their AIDS hot line skyrocketed.

“The hot line normally gets about 3,000 calls a day,” said Ann Sims, a CDC spokeswoman. “Yesterday from 5 to midnight they had over 40,000 calls that attempted to come in. Of course, they couldn’t handle all of that, but the equipment registered that many attempts to call in.”

The response, officials said, reflected a mixture of legitimate concerns and unwarranted fears about a virus that the CDC estimates is carried by 1 million to 1.5 million people nationwide.

The announcement by Johnson, who is widely perceived as having contracted HIV through heterosexual contact, underscores the rapidly rising rate of male-female transmission. According to a recent CDC report, more than 11,200 of the more than 186,000 AIDS deaths nationwide could be linked to heterosexual transmission of HIV.

The rate of transmission has increased most rapidly among heterosexual women.

Countywide, the anxiety over AIDS spread in ever-widening circles, prompting people to call information hot lines, their doctors and health facilities. The questions ran the gamut: Would a person be told he was infected if he had just donated blood? Was it really all nonsense that stuff about getting AIDS from mosquitoes? How easily could heterosexuals get AIDS?

Those nervously awaiting tests vowed to live a safer risk-free life. Never again, many promised, would they have sexual intercourse without a condom.

At the AIDS Foundation San Diego, the calls tripled as individuals sought more information about the virus and getting tested for it, said Amy Somers, the group’s executive director.

At UC San Diego’s Owen Clinic, receptionists were swamped by calls, said Miik Miller, a clinical nurse. And, at dozens of private physicians’ offices, the anxiety was almost palpable.

But the black community was struck harder than any other, as they watched the untimely fall of a hero, some experts said.

“There’s a deep sense of shock,” said Carl G. Clark, president-elect of the Assn. of Black Psychologists’ San Diego chapter.

The tremor caused by Johnson’s disclosure shook the community far more than similar revelations about any other celebrity--such as actor Rock Hudson--struck by the disease, Clark said. “Magic Johnson is larger than life. . . . It’s a real special loss. It’s a real sense of pain, anguish and isolation.”

And the shock led scores to testing facilities, in hopes of putting an end to the gnawing question of whether they had AIDS, a deadly disease that has baffled doctors for a decade.

Some fit the category of “the Worried Well,” or those who have more worry than cause for worry. Others came for testing because they knew they had participated in risky behavior--such as intravenous drug use or unprotected sex--that might have transmitted the virus to them.

“I’m scared, I should have been more cautious,” said one 17-year-old high school senior, who asked that her name not be used. This young woman got an AIDS test because she had unprotected intercourse with two boys in the past nine months. “Magic Johnson is an idol to us. I just feel crushed because it really could happen to anybody if it happened to him.”

Still others simply wanted peace of mind.

“At first I figured that what I don’t know can’t hurt, but now I figure it’s better to know,” said one 22-year-old Encinitas student, who went with his girlfriend so they could both get AIDS tests. “I’d like to put my mind at rest and know that I am not going to ruin someone else’s life if I inadvertently ruined my own.”

In San Diego, 2,805 men and 142 women have been afflicted with AIDS, according to the county. Since 1981, when health officials first began monitoring, acquired immune deficiency syndrome has killed 1,874.

Although AIDS was at first considered a disease that struck only homosexuals, it has trickled over the years into the heterosexual community. And Johnson’s announcement was proof that the disease can strike anyone, even a superstar athlete.

Strong reactions were also found in an informal survey of clinics and AIDS hot lines in New York, Miami, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Hartford, Conn., and Lansing, Mich.

Margaret Karanjai, spokeswoman for the New York City health department, said nine extra workers had to be added to staff its AIDS hot line. People also flocked to HIV testing sites to make appointments in person.

At Houston’s Audette Clinic, the calls have tripled to about 300 a day. “The response has been huge,” counselor Cindy Lavine said. “There’s an upsurge of heterosexuals calling, people who are suddenly concerned--they never considered they were truly at risk and are now full of questions.”

“It’s been terrible,” said Mildred Manley, a receptionist at a Hartford HIV testing center. “It’s triple the usual number, both males and females. . . . We had to set up special classes for people in low-risk groups that are calling today.”

The Oregon AIDS Hotline in Portland was “amazingly busy,” Charla Scharffenberg said. “We’re answering five to six times as many calls as we ever have, we have three people on the phones where we normally have one.”

In Johnson’s hometown of Lansing, Michael DiAngelo Bishop, a 22-year-old senior at Michigan State University, Johnson’s alma mater, summed up the feelings of many.

“I’m going to get tested myself,” Bishop said. “If it could be him, it could be anybody.

At clinics large and small throughout Southern California, the response reflected a widespread fear of the unknown.

Despite years of public education, many people still don’t understand that the AIDS virus is transmitted chiefly through unprotected anal and vaginal sex, and through the sharing of contaminated needles by IV drug users, health workers said.

“Some people are crying,” said Debra Pinto, receptionist at the busy East Valley Community Health Center in West Covina. “They’re just scared.”

AIDS Across the U.S.

Here are the the numbers of AIDS cases nationwide, by exposure category, among adults and adolescents through September of 1991: The Numbers Pediatric cases: 3,312 Adult and adolescent cases: 192,406

Types of Transmission Heterosexual contact: 10,989 (6%) Men who have sex with men: 112,812 (59%) Intravenous drug users: 43,028 (22%) Men who have sex with men and use IV drugs: 12,580 (6%) Other/undetermined: 7,710 (4%) Receipt of blood transfusion, blood components or tissue: 4,205 (2%) Hemophilia or coagulation disorders: 1,622 (1%)

Breakdown: Sex with IV drug user: 5,818 Sex with bisexual male: 625 Sex with person with hemophilia: 100 Born in certain countries with high AIDS rates: 2,401 Sex with person from such a country: 173 Sex with infected transfusion recipient: 223 Sex with infected person, risk not specified: 1,649 SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control