AIDS and Doctors

Santa Monica, CA—. . .While there isn't a single documented case of a patient catching acquired immune deficiency syndrome from a doctor or other healthcare worker, medical caregivers with AIDS—and those who have tested positive for the AIDS virus but don't have the disease—raise difficult and sensitive questions for the medical community. The central question: whether these people should continue to treat and maintain contact with patients. "What you have are fundamental ethical issues of fairness, justice and moral responsibility," says Ronald Bayer, a Columbia University bioethics professor. . . As of last September 3, 182 health-care workers were known to have AIDS, including 356 physicians, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. . . most hospitals that have discovered an attending physician or health-care worker with AIDS do try to re-assign the individuals to other duties, especially if they are involved in performing invasive procedures. But. the courts have consistently held that AIDS is a physical handicap protected under state and federal anti-discrimination laws. . . . Procedures used to handle the question of what to do about doctors with AIDS will only work if these doctors identify themselves. But a handful of infected physicians have learned the hard way what happens when word of their condition leaks out. . . (After a newspaper report revealed that a Dallas-area pediatrician had AIDS last year) local medical authorities assured parents that the doctor wasn't a threat to their children. But the assurances did no good, and his practice collapsed. "Any risk is too great when you're dealing with my children," (said the parent of a patient.). . .(The pediatrician's) advice to other doctors with AIDS: "Don't tell anyone."