Subject: Panel Finds Little Risk Of Getting AIDS at Work
Date: Published: 6/30/88 38 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Panel Finds Little Risk
    Of Getting AIDS at Work

    GENEVA (AP) -- A panel of health and employment experts
 concluded yesterday that most workers don't risk getting AIDS
 at work, and it advised companies against screening current
 or prospective employees for AIDS, or the HIV virus, which
 causes the deadly disease.
    The 36-member panel, meeting under the auspices of the
 World Health Organization and the International Labor
 Organization, also recommended that workers suffering from
 acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or those infected with
 the AIDS virus, be given the same access to health benefits
 as other workers.
    It said employees should feel "no obligation" to inform
 their employers whether they have AIDS, or are infected with
 the HIV virus.
   The panel, representing 18 countries, also said HIV
 infection wasn't a reason to fire an employee.  It recommended
 that "reasonable alternative working arrangements should be
 made" if a worker's ability to do his job is impaired by
 AIDS. 
    Jonathan Mann, head of the WHO's AIDS program, told a news
 conference that the guidelines didn't apply to workers where
 AIDS transmission might be a risk, such as in health care,
 among emergency medical personnel, and in some cases police
 and firefighters.  He said a meeting on such occupations would
 be held later this year.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]