Subject: Sixth Patient of Dentist With AIDS Tests Positive
Date: Published: 5/7/93 (33 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology:
    Sixth Patient of Dentist
    With AIDS Tests Positive

    ATLANTA -- A sixth patient of a Florida dentist who died of AIDS
 has tested positive for HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that
 causes AIDS, according to a report by the Centers for Disease
 Control and Prevention.
    The patient, a teenage girl, learned she was HIV positive when
 she was tested as an applicant for military service in late 1992,
 the CDC said.  She was a patient of David Acer, who died of AIDS in
 1990.  Five other patients of Dr. Acer have tested positive for HIV,
 with one, Kimberly Bergalis, dying of AIDS in 1991.
    The latest patient had no other exposure to HIV, the CDC said in
 its report.  And, like the other five cases, federal authorities say
 they don't know how this latest transmission of HIV occurred.  "This
 additional case doesn't give us any more clues," said Harold Jaffee,
 director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS.  
    Dr. Jaffe said there may still be patients of Dr. Acer who have
 not been tested for the AIDS virus.  The CDC estimates that Dr. Acer
 had 2,000 patients; 1,100 told health officials they have been
 tested, he said.
    The CDC said the Acer cases remain the only documented instance
 of HIV transmission from a health-care worker to patients.

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