The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco: The Response of Community Physicians, 1981-1984, Vol. I

Stances on the AIDS Antibody Testing

Hughes

Meaning what?

Campbell

Well, Denny McShane was very concerned about any political people taking away the liberties of people who were gay. And with HTLV-III testing, he took a very firm stance that if that test was to be done, it had to be extremely secret, or maybe not done at all.

Campbell

At that forum, I probably came out and said that the test could be quite helpful. I think I registered some concern about the fact that safe-sex guidelines needed to be awfully strict. I felt that I left that meeting rather unpopular.

Hughes

In June of '86, you participated in a program on the antibody test in which you discussed its clinical applications, highlighting the "exceptional" situations in which the test was useful for gay men.

Campbell

I know we'd had a series of Scientific Affairs Committee meetings on who should be tested and who should not be tested.

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That was still before AZT, and we were still probably not recommending the test for everybody.

Hughes

Well, a year earlier the Executive Board recommended against antibody testing except for "certain special circumstances", which the minutes didn't detail.

Campbell

Yes. And I think almost every gay publication in 1985 came out, like the New York Native came out, with things like, "Don't take the test." There was really a strong movement against the test until AZT was available. When AZT became more broadly available in the spring of 1987, gay men were encouraged to be tested.

About this text
Courtesy of Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt6580067h&brand=oac4
Title: The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco: The Response of Community Physicians, 1981-1984, Vol. I
By:  Sally Smith Hughes
Date: 1996
Contributing Institution: Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley
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