Subject: Letters to the Editor:  Should HIV-Infected Doctors Still Practice?  
Date: Published: 1/18/89 (32 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Letters to the Editor:  
    Should HIV-Infected
    Doctors Still Practice?  

    Re your Jan. 4 Health article "Medical Industry Faces
 Tough Issue of Dealing With its Workers With AIDS":  The
 transmission of the AIDS virus to patients is not the only
 serious risk associated with the practicing HIV-infected
 physician.
    Because brain damage ultimately occurs in almost 100% of
 symptomatic AIDS cases, clinically ill physicians may not be
 able to practice effectively.  In fact, one study detected
 subtle cognitive and behavioral defects in about 40% of
 carefully evaluated "asymptomatic" HIV carriers.
    AIDS-infected physicians also can infect immuno-suppressed
 patients with potentially fatal opportunistic infections.
 Moreover, AIDS carriers are assumed to be infected and
 contagious with the cytomegalovirus (CMV), which can cause
 devastating congenital neurological defects.
    Organized medicine has placed its trade-union role ahead
 of patient safety on the issue of the HIV-infected physician.
    Mark I. Klein M. D. 
    Berkeley, Calif.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
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hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]