Johns Hopkins Hospital confirmed for the first time yesterday that a well-known breast surgeon who worked there for several years died of AIDS -- and hospital officials began mailing letters to 1,800 former patients offering free counseling and testing for the virus.
But an estimated 100 former patients who had already learned through media reports about Dr. Rudolph Almaraz's death from AIDS called the hospital yesterday and Sunday, expressing a range of emotions from calm concern to extreme upset, a Hopkins official said.
"There are some who have taken it very calmly, very factually, and others who have become quite upset, quite concerned," Dr. Timothy Townsend, Hopkins epidemiologist and senior director for medical affairs, said at a news conference yesterday.
zTC Dr. Townsend, reflecting the tone of the hospital's letter, repeated his belief that the chances the doctor transmitted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to a patient during surgery were "really quite low." Transmission could have occurred only in the unlikely event that the surgeon cut himself and dripped blood onto the patient. Hopkins knows of no such incidents involving Dr. Almaraz.
"Health-care workers generally don't bleed on their patients," he said. Surgeons, he said, generally wear gowns, gloves, masks and protective eye wear to protect themselves from HIV or other infections borne by the patient -- precautions that also protect the patient from any infection carried by the doctor.
Given the small risk, Dr. Townsend said he wasn't sure the hospital would require an infected surgeon even today to disclose his illness to patients. He said, however, that Hopkins is re-evaluating the issue.
So far, The Sun has learned of at least two former patients who got themselves tested for HIV yesterday -- one at Hopkins and another at a private medical laboratory. Another woman said she was tested outside the hospital a few months ago in response to rumors.
In addition, Dr. Townsend said "two, three or four" patients said they were tested in past months for reasons unrelated to Dr. Almaraz. All tested negative, he said.
Dr. Almaraz, widely respected for his compassion and skill as a surgeon, died Nov. 16 at age 41. Hospital officials estimate that he operated on approximately 300 patients a year since he joined the full-time hospital staff early in 1984.
