Subject: Letters to the Editor: A Closer Look At AIDS Dentist
Date: Published: 6/28/93 (32 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Letters to the Editor:
    A Closer Look
    At AIDS Dentist

    Your May 7 article "Sixth Patient of Dentist With AIDS Tests
 Positive" mistakenly gives an impression that Dr. Acer's patient
 group is suffering from an above-normal incidence of the HIV virus.
 The frequency of the HIV virus in the general U. S. population has
 been repeatedly measured since 1985 at a steady 0.4%.
    If Dr. Acer had 2,000 patients, then the Centers for Disease
 Control and Prevention would expect to find eight of his patients
 HIV-positive.  The fact that six of his patients have been found to
 be HIV-positive does not seem to be very newsworthy or statistically
 significant.
    The fact is that nobody knows how Kimberly Bergalis became
 infected with HIV.  Certainly Dr. Acer's patients do not exhibit any
 higher than normal incidence of HIV.  
    It's interesting to note how anxious the media and the government
 are to "prove" that Ms. Bergalis was infected by her dentist despite
 the fact that there is no proof and no statistics pointing in that
 direction.
    Robert Bland
    Palatine, Ill.

[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.]