AIDS Tests Soaring in San Diego

One month after Ervin (Magic) Johnson’s announcement that he had contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, local facilities are being deluged with demands for AIDS tests and information about the deadly disease.

Requests for tests at San Diego County facilities have tripled, staying at an all-time high that officials had thought would drop off in the weeks after the basketball player’s announcement.

“This is at least three times what we experienced in the last great rush, which was Rock Hudson’s disclosure that he had AIDS,” said Steve Hart, the county’s test sites coordinator.

But with decreasing donations and diminishing state funds, not all of the community groups can handle the groundswell. San Diego’s largest organization, the AIDS Foundation, has laid off two employees and expects it might have to lose more--even though the demand for services is far greater than ever.

At Auntie Helen’s Fluff ‘n’ Fold, a laundry service for AIDS patients, there has been a 25% increase in requests for services. Being Alive!, an organization for people who, like Johnson, are HIV positive, has experienced a doubling in the number of calls for information. Most of those calls, says Bruce Callen, a counselor, are from heterosexuals who are panicked about the possibility of being infected.

In San Diego and across the nation, Johnson’s Nov. 7 disclosure that he had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, prompted a wave of anxiety as people worried that they, too, might be infected. And the panic has hit around the holidays, a time that AIDS testing facilities and service organizations usually experience a respite.

“This is holiday time, which is traditionally a lull in testing,” Hart said. “But we haven’t gotten any lull and if this is a lull, we are kind of concerned about what’s going to happen in January.”

Though the county facilities and AIDS groups here are feeling overwhelmed, elsewhere in Southern California, health districts have depleted their state allocations for providing anonymous tests.

In San Diego, the increased demand for assistance comes as some organizations--like the AIDS Foundation--are feeling the pinch from having lost government funds. When the AIDS Foundation lost $100,000 in government dollars that paid for its information hot line, the group decided to man the phones anyway, handling an annual 15,000 calls.

In an effort to cut expenses, the group laid off its volunteer director and an administrative assistant--a move that saves $55,000, Executive Director Amy Somers said. “I felt it was prudent to cut our expenses. . . . I do not want to cut client services.”

For the AIDS Foundation, the year offers an unfortunate equation: a cut in government funds, a reduction in private donations that Somers attributed to the nationwide recession, and an increase in the number of clients.

As a result, not even halfway into the fiscal year, the group is operating at a $100,000 deficit.

“The bottom line is: we are stretching ourselves,” Somers said. And clearly, the group is feeling the strain. This year, AIDS sufferers made an average of 1,250 visits to the AIDS Foundation’s Food Bank each month--up from last year’s average of 630.

The AIDS Foundation will step up its fund-raising efforts but if the money doesn’t trickle in, services may be limited, said Garrett Dettling, chairman of the board.

“We might become like (other groups across the nation) which have a waiting list to receive services,” Dettling said. “I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.”

Since the news broke about Magic Johnson, the county has administered about 140 AIDS tests daily--triple the usual number, Hart said. Sometimes, the crowds at the county’s test sites are so large that people are turned away.

“We haven’t hired any new staff and we aren’t going to,” said Dr. Donald G. Ramras, deputy director of the County Department of Health Services. “There have been times when we had to hang a sign out saying, ‘We Can’t See More Patients Today.’ ”

But elsewhere in Southern California, the situation has become even more grim. Only halfway through the fiscal year, health officials say, several health districts in Los Angeles County have exhausted their state allocations for providing anonymous tests for the HIV. (In San Diego, the county has not yet depleted its allocation, Ramras said.)

Confronted by a wave of heterosexuals newly alarmed about the virus, clinics have continued to provide tests in the hope that government officials will make good on assurances that expenses will be covered despite the state’s budget deficit and plans for deep spending cuts.

“We’re committed to the program and we’re hoping for the best,” said Diane Chamberlain, associate director of the Valley Community Clinic in North Hollywood, one of many operations feeling the strain. “We can’t make people go away. How can you do that?”

Although state officials cut the HIV testing program budget one month before Johnson’s announcement, it is considered such a crucial tool in stemming the AIDS epidemic that the Wilson Adminstration and the state health officials will find a way to provide the funds even if it means cutting other programs, said Anna Ramirez of the state office of AIDS. The program provides free, anonymous tests as a way to encourage people to learn their HIV status.

“We’re in a budget deficit, so monies are scarce,” Ramirez said. “But the Adminstration is very committed to making sure this program continues, and so is the health and welfare agency. . . . We’ll find the money.”

Preliminary estimates indicate that anywhere from $3 million to $7 million will have to be reallocated to supplement the $5.4 million that had been set aside for free, anonymous HIV testing, Ramirez said. The money provides clinics with a $44 reimbursement per test.

So far, Ramirez said, 34 of the 37 health districts that operate anonymous testing sites have notified the state that they are likely to exceed their allotments. Local health official in jurisdictions covering San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, Orange County, San Francisco, Alameda County and San Bernardino have told the state office they have already exceed their budget or will do so “within a month,” Ramirez said.

Times staff writer Scott Harris contributed to this report.