Richard Grayson letter in The New York Times: "She Took the AIDS Test"

Richard Grayson has a letter in the New York Times Magazine today (August 2, 1987), "She Took the AIDS Test":


Dena Kleiman may have understated how the possibility of a false positive result may affect a person who was not counseled to the extent that she was. A friend of mine, someone, like Ms. Kleiman, who had no reason to think she had been infected, was plunged into a profound depression when her first test result came back positive and she was warned never to have children and to inform previous sexual partners of the result.

Dena Kleiman may have understated how the possibility of a false positive result may affect a person who was not counseled to the extent that she was. A friend of mine, someone, like Ms. Kleiman, who had no reason to think she had been infected, was plunged into a profound depression when her first test result came back positive and she was warned never to have children and to inform previous sexual partners of the result. My friend didn't dare believe the second AIDS test result, which was negative. She has taken the AIDS test a third and fourth time (with both results negative) yet has become convinced - neurotically, she admits, but also helplessly - that she still may be infected with the virus.

If this can be the outcome of a false positive result, it's obvious that those who truly test positive for AIDS need the kind of counseling programs the Reagan Administration, in its zeal to introduce mandatory antibody testing, seems unwilling to provide. Four suicides in the Miami area have been linked to positive results for the AIDS antibody test in recent months, and I wonder how many others are suffering the same kind of emotional agony.

RICHARD GRAYSON
New York, N.Y.