REPORT DOUBTS DENTIST AS AIDS SOURCE

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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 25, 1993                   TAG: 9302250085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
REPORT DOUBTS DENTIST AS AIDS SOURCE
A new report released Wednesday cast doubt on whether a Florida dentist - accused in a highly publicized case of infecting five patients with the AIDS virus - actually was responsible for the transmission.
The report, published in the weekly British journal Nature, fell far short, however, of proving that the dentist, Dr. David Acer, who has since died of AIDS, was not the source of the infection.
"We are not saying that the dentist did not infect the patients - we're saying you really can't prove it one way or the other," said Ronald W. DeBry, an evolutionary biologist in Florida State University's department of biological science.
"We are not saying that we can prove any other source of infection for any of the patients," he added. "What we are saying is that you also cannot prove the dentist was the source."
The case has been cited at the only example of transmission from an infected health professional to a patient since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981. There have been several dozen instances, however, in which health care workers have become infected through contact with the blood of an infected patient.
Officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who conducted the initial investigation and have concluded Acer was the source, dismissed the Nature report, saying that it ignores substantial additional evidence that points to him.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB