KIMBERLY BERGALIS/DR. DAVID ACER

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KIMBERLY BERGALIS PERSON WITH AIDS DR. DAVID ACER DENTIST

One of five patients apparently infected with HIV by Dr. David Acer, a dentist (shown in inset), Kimberly Bergalis was the first to speak publicly about the matter, and she became the center of the bitter political issue of testing health-care workers.

Born in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, in 1968, Kimberly Bergalis was 10 when her family moved to Florida. There in 1987 she went o Dr. Acer for a tooth extraction. Since no rule obligated him to disclose his HIV status, he was practicing without telling his patients hat he was infected. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1990, Bergalis insised she was a virgin and had never used drugs. Tests showed her strain of HIV to be almost identical to Acer's. Eventually, unsterilized dental equipment was implicated as a possible transmission route.

Understandably, she and her family were bitter. They attacked authorities for failing to set up mandatory HIV testing procedures, and she was presented as an "innocent"' AIDS sufferer-as opposed o those who acquired the disease through drug use or sex. Near death, she was wheeled into a Congressional hearing by supporters of a bill that would have required testing of all health-care workers.

Among expressions of sympathy for Kimberly Bergalis, who died on December 8, 1991, were protests against the way her case was politicized. In Newsweek, Tom Ehrenfeld called for compassion or all people with AIDS, no matter how they contracted the disease. He pointed out that Dr. Acer, who died in 1990, probably suffered horribly and should not be seen as a villain because he was gay. He said, "The real villains are hatred and ignorance. The heroesand the solution to the spread of AIDS-are love and education." Next Card 8: MICHAEL CALLEN: Songwriter, AIDS Activist AIDS AWARENESS: PEOPLE WITH AIDS Text © 1993 William Livingstone Art © 1993 Greg Loudon Eclipse Enterprises, P. O. Box 1099, Forestville, California 95436