An article in Saturday's editions of The Sun implied that the state health department had identified Dr. Rudolph Almaraz as one of 15 physicians in the state who has been diagnosed with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Although Dr. Almaraz did die of AIDS and was one of the 15 physicians counted by the state, his name was neither confirmed nor denied by the health department, whose AIDS reporting system is based on confidentiality.
Citing a "policy vacuum" regarding the issue of health-care workers with AIDS, Johns Hopkins Hospital officials called yesterday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to issue specific policies.
In a news conference, Dr. Hamilton Moses III, Hopkins vice president of medical affairs, also announced that the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will join Hopkins and the CDC to conduct a study of the 1,800 patients treated by Dr. Rudolph Almaraz, the surgeon who died last month of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION
The purpose of the study will be to gather data on the risk of infected physicians' transmitting the AIDS virus to patients.
Dr. Moses emphasized that Hopkins is not alone in facing this problem.
"We are absolutely certain that at this very minute there is at least one surgeon or other health-care worker in every major urban hospital in this land who is HIV positive or who has AIDS," he said.
According to the state health department, Dr. Almaraz was one of 15 physicians in the state who have been diagnosed with AIDS. The health department does not know how many of those doctors are still alive or treating patients.
Hopkins is turning to the CDC for guidelines about HIV-infected employees rather than just formulating its own policy, Dr. Moses said, be
cause "this is a controversial topic."
"We want help. We do not feel it is appropriate for us to be in the spotlight," he said. "AIDS is not just a disease, it's a political phenomenon."
In a letter to Dr. William Roper, director of the CDC, Dr. Moses asked that the CDC announce when hospitals and health-care workers can expect specific guidelines. The letter asked a number of questions, including what studies are needed to quantify the risk of transmission from health-care worker to patient, which medical procedures would pose the highest risk, whether HIV-infected health-care workers should be curtailed from patient contact and what legal restraints hospitals could place on infected employees.
