Did late Miami Beach dentist deliberately infect patients with AIDS?
MIAMI BEACH, FLA. — A close friend of the late Dr. David Acer says he has reached the ''uncomfortable conclusion'' that Acer deliberately infected two of his dental patients with the AIDS virus.
How many patients of Florida dentist have been infected with AIDS?
Two more patients of a Florida dentist have become infected with the same strain of the AIDS virus that killed him, bringing to five the number of patients known to have been infected by him in his practice, Florida health officials said yesterday.
Who was the first person to die from AIDS?
In 1991, a young Floridian woman named Kimberly Bergalis died as a result of AIDS. She is recorded as the first person in history to have been infected by a healthcare worker, her dentist Dr. David Acer.
What is the history of HIV in Florida?
In the late 1980s, Dr. David Acer, a dentist working in Florida, passed an HIV infection to six of his patients.
How did Kimberly Bergalis get AIDS?
Kimberly Bergalis died from AIDS-related illnesses in December. She contracted the AIDS virus during a 1987 tooth extraction by Acer.
Can you get AIDS at the dentist?
7 In the same report the CDC admitted that the transmission of HIV did not occur from contaminated floors, walls, countertops and hospital waste. 7 Based on these facts, there was absolutely no clinical evidence to suggest that dentists were at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS from infected patients.
Who was the first woman to contract AIDS?
Kimberly Ann Bergalis (January 19, 1968 – December 8, 1991) was an American woman who was one of six patients purportedly infected with HIV by dentist David J. Acer, who was infected with HIV and died of AIDS in September 1990. This incident is the first known case of clinical transmission of HIV.
How Florida get AIDS?
You may become infected if you have vaginal, anal or oral sex with an infected partner whose blood, semen or vaginal secretions enter your body. The virus can enter your body through mouth sores or small tears that sometimes develop in the rectum or vagina during sexual activity. By sharing needles.
Who was the first person to have HIV?
Known for. First known case of clinically-transmitted HIV. Kimberly Ann Bergalis (January 19, 1968 – December 8, 1991) was an American woman who was one of six patients purportedly infected with HIV by dentist David J. Acer, who was infected with HIV and died of AIDS in September 1990.
Who sponsored the HIV test?
Shortly before Bergalis's 1991 death, despite failing health, she testified before the Congress in support of a bill sponsored by Representative William Dannemeyer mandating HIV tests for healthcare workers, and permitting doctors to test patients without their consent.
Where is Kimberly Bergalis buried?
Her funeral was held on December 12 in her hometown of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania after which she was buried in Saints Peter and Paul RC Lithuanian Cemetery. Shortly after Bergalis’ death, a small park on Hutchinson Island South, Florida was renamed Kimberly Bergalis Memorial Park in her memory.
How long did it take for Bergalis to develop AIDS?
The time between Bergalis' dental procedure and the development of AIDS (24 months) was short; 1% of infected homosexual / bisexual men and 5% of infected transfusion recipients develop AIDS within two years of infection.
Who was Kimberly Bergalis?
Kimberly Ann Bergalis (January 19, 1968 – December 8, 1991) was an American woman who was one of six patients purportedly infected with HIV by dentist David J. Acer, who was infected with HIV and died of AIDS in September 1990. This incident is the first known case of clinical transmission of HIV.
Is Acer a HIV positive person?
Acer was HIV-positive at the time, having been diagnosed that fall. In March 1989 Bergalis began to show symptoms of AIDS and was diagnosed with the disease in January 1990.
Who pulled the teeth of Dr. Elizabeth?
Some accused her of fanning public hysteria over AIDS. Her dentist, David Acer, pulled two of her teeth in December 1987, two months after learning he had full-blown AIDS.
Where is Miss Bergalis buried?
Burial was to follow in a decades-old Lithuanian cemetery on a hillside near the Schuylkill River. Miss Bergalis, who spent the first 10 years of her life in this town of 9,400, died in Fort Pierce, Fla., on Sunday at the age of 23. ADVERTISEMENT.
Who is the grandmother who died from HIV?
Then he read about Webb , the grandmother with HIV from Palm City, Fla. ''I have to tell you bells went off in my head,'' Parsons said. In 1991, he watched Bergalis testify in Washington, and he cried when he heard she died. Parsons said he wanted to tell someone about Acer, but his friends told him not to bring it up.
Did Jane Webb have AIDS?
She contracted the AIDS virus during a 1987 tooth extraction by Acer. But Webb never has dismissed the premeditation theory. ''In a weird way, it makes some kind of sense,'' she said. ''If indeed he did choose, he chose rather well.
Did Acer infect his patients?
Acer never said he deliberately infected his patients, Parsons said. Parsons moved back to New York in 1990 and read about his friend`s death in September. For a year, he said, he talked with family and friends about AIDS and how health-care professionals could possibly transmit it.
Overview
Kimberly Ann Bergalis (January 19, 1968 – December 8, 1991) was an American woman who was one of six patients purportedly infected with HIV by dentist David J. Acer, who was infected with HIV and died of AIDS in September 1990. This incident is the first known case of clinical transmission of HIV.
Background
The eldest of three daughters, Bergalis was born in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, in 1968, where her family lived until moving to Florida in 1978. In 1985, she enrolled at the University of Florida and majored in business.
In December 1987, dentist Dr. David Acer removed two of Bergalis's molars. Acer was HIV-positive at the time, having been diagnosed that fall. In March 1989, Bergalis began to display symptoms of AIDS and was diagnosed with the disease in January 1990. The initial report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sta…
CDC investigation
The CDC conducted a phylogenetic analysis of the DNA sequences of the viral envelope gene. The analysis revealed that the viral sequences from five patients, including Bergalis, were more closely related to the dentist's viral sequences than to those from local controls. Later analyses identified another HIV-positive patient with a viral sequence closely related to Acer's. Independent review of the CDC tests strengthened the case that Bergalis' HIV infection was linked to Acer.
Political reaction
During the last months of her life, Bergalis' case was cited by some politicians and journalists as an example of a 'blameless' HIV infection that had been allowed to happen due to the CDC and the healthcare industry being overly responsive to the concerns of AIDS activists and the gay community. In an obituary, the National Review wrote that Bergalis:
came to feel she had a special calling...to bring a glimmer of truth, however forlorn, into a debate characterized b…
Death and posthumous controversy
On December 8, 1991, Bergalis died of AIDS-related complications at her home in Fort Pierce, Florida. Her funeral was held on December 12 in her hometown of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, after which she was buried in Saints Peter and Paul RC Lithuanian Cemetery. Shortly after Bergalis’ death, a small park on Hutchinson Island South, Florida, was renamed Kimberly Bergalis Memorial Park in her memory.
Nearly three years after Bergalis’ death, in June 1994, CBS aired an episode of 60 Minutes that included a segmen…
External links
• Kimberly Bergalis at Find a Grave