
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 17, 1993                   TAG: 9312170238
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DOCTOR PASSES AIDS FROM 1 PATIENT TO OTHERS

For the first time since the beginning of the epidemic, a surgeon seems to have unintentionally passed the AIDS virus from one of his patients to four others during routine surgical procedures.

Though "no precise event has been reported" to explain how the virus was passed to the Australian surgeon's patients, Dr. Harold Jaffe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said his agency suspects that the doctor, whose practice is in Sydney, Australia, made some error in his infection-control practices.

Australian authorities learned of two strange cases of women in their 80s developing AIDS symptoms earlier this year. Because the elderly women had no obvious risk factors for AIDs, authorities initiated a major detective effort to trace the source of the women's infections.

It wasn't until the Australian officials worked their way back to 1989 that they discovered the two women - who did not know each another - had seen the same physician, on the same day, for outpatient surgery to remove moles. Two other women had seen the doctor the same day, and also had been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

A fifth individual - a gay man - also was in the doctor's office that day, officials said. He died last year of AIDS. Four other patients seen that day and the doctor are negative for HIV infection.

by CNB