REPORT AIDS SUSPICIONS, PA. ASKS LABS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 31, 1993                   TAG: 9301310103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Short
REPORT AIDS SUSPICIONS, PA. ASKS LABS
The state Department of Health wants medical laboratories to report the names of patients with white blood-cell counts low enough to signal possible AIDS infections.
Critics said reporting such cases by name tramples on individuals' rights to privacy and may discourage people from getting tested or treated for AIDS.
The request, issued by the health department on Jan. 4, was drafted to better track the spread of AIDS under an expanded definition of the disease the federal government began using last year.
Laboratories were asked to report the patient's name, address, age, sex and race, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday.
State officials said labs were being urged to provide the information, but compliance was not mandatory.
"It's abhorrent," said Francis J. Stoffa Jr., executive director of the AIDS Task Force of Philadelphia. "This is statistics at the expense of privacy and the confidence that people require to come forward to get early intervention and treatment."
It also could lead to mistaken identification of AIDS among people who suffer from other disorders affecting white blood cells, critics said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB