Countywide : Supervisors Extend AIDS Testing Policy

In a move to protect Orange County’s public employees, the Board of Supervisors has extended a resolution requiring jail inmates and criminal suspects to undergo AIDS testing when workers may be at risk of contracting the deadly virus.

More than 1,000 public safety workers have been tested since Orange County’s Occupational Exposure Program was put in place in January, 1989, to give employees such as sheriff’s deputies and paramedics peace of mind after being exposed to blood or bodily fluids.

“This allows testing of prisoners or detainees if there has been some kind of exposure,” said Dr. Penny Weismuller, county manager for disease control at the county Health Care Agency. “It allows the officers, for example, to know how they should manage that exposure.”

There are no known cases of Orange County workers becoming infected while on the job, Weismuller said.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve extending the testing program until 1999.

The majority of individuals are tested after an incident involving loss of blood, such as an altercation in the jail, she said, or if paramedics suspect that person may carry the deadly virus.

More than 98% of individuals are tested voluntarily. The county’s chief health director can order the test in cases in which individuals refuse to be tested, Weismuller said.

The county health care agency cannot, however, force individuals to take the AIDS test. In some rare instances, the county has sought court orders to mandate testing, she said.

Of the 1,144 workers who have been exposed to blood and bodily fluids since the program began, 524 were law enforcement workers, and 474 were emergency workers, Weismuller said.