jfh@netcom.COM (Jack Hamilton) (05/13/91)
(Derived from an article in the San Francisco Examiner, May 12, 1991) A gay San Francisco police officer has filed a disability suit against the Police Department, claiming on-the-job infection. The office, Tom Cady, was bitten by a suspect during an arrest in 1984. The suspect told police that he had AIDS, but was never tested. City officials are still investigating. Cady says "They think I'm some faggot who went and got AIDS on my own and now I'm trying to take the city for disability." The CDC knows of no cases where HIV was transmitted via a bite, but there have been several dozen cases of accidental blood-borne transmission (most during surgery, but one as the result of a bus accident). Cady says there was a lot of blood around during the arrest (both he and the suspect were bleeding). A Los Angeles police officer was granted a disability pension earlier this year, but Los Angeles did not consider that policeman's claim proved. At the time of the bite, Cady took the suspect to court in an attempt to force him to submit to a blood test, but he later dropped the case because he didn't want his sex life brought into the courtroom. Since then, California voters have approved an initiative providing mandatory blood testing under those circumstances. -- Jack Hamilton jfh@netcom.com apple!netcom!jfh