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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995                   TAG: 9506290004
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

AIDS-DOCTOR LINK CONFUSES TEENS

Many teen-agers are afraid of getting AIDS from doctors or other health professionals, according to a survey that found what one researcher called a frightening misconception among youngsters.

Only six of the estimated 1.5 million people who are HIV-positive in the United States are believed to have been infected by a health professional - and all six by the same dentist.

``It surprised all the experts, because the experts did not know that teen-agers had this misconception,'' said the lead researcher on the survey, Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg, a specialist in adolescent medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The 1993 survey of more than 6,800 ninth-graders in 39 Philadelphia public schools was designed to identify what teens most want in a health care provider. Proper hand-washing was at the top of the list, followed by using clean instruments, honesty, respect toward teens and overall cleanliness.

Researchers learned from 215 youngsters in 21 small discussion groups that the preoccupation with cleanliness was related to the fear of acquiring diseases, particularly AIDS.

In seven groups, teens immediately said concern about AIDS explained the importance they attached to hand-washing and overall cleanliness. In the 14 other groups, the initial concern was ``germs.'' When asked what kind of germs, youngsters in seven of the 14 groups mentioned the AIDS virus.

``Our findings suggest a pressing need for better public education about the near-zero risk of acquiring HIV through routine health care,'' the researchers report in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The survey was funded by private and government sources.

Teens may spurn preventive health care because they are afraid of getting AIDS, Ginsburg said.

During the discussion groups, Ginsburg said, he told the youngsters that 1.5 million Americans have the AIDS virus, and he asked the teen-agers to estimate how many got infected by health professionals. Most of the youngsters put the number at 100,000 to 250,000, he said.

``That's frightening that they had that perception,'' he said, ``when the reality is six.''

by CNB