A recent experience drove home for me that the rotted foundation for explaining AIDS is still trying to support some pretty inexcusable medical practices at local doctors' offices.

My partner Michael is taking a class to get his EMS (Emergency Medical Services) certificate. One of the course requirements is that he get a series of Hepatitis B vaccinations.

Because we were concerned that this or one of the other mandatory vaccinations could result in a falsely positive reaction to the Gallo antibody test result (aka HIV test) in the future, Michael made the difficult decision to have that test done before getting any vaccinations.

Michael has not tested in many years and until now has always tested negative when he did.  If his status were to suddenly change after a Hep B vaccination, he wanted to have as reasonable a point of reference as is possible with these flaky and poly-reactive tests.

The medical staff at the suburban clinic he goes to actually tried to discourage Michael from HIV testing, despite knowing he is gay and has been in a long term relationship with a poz man.

The reasons the medical staff gave to not take a HIV test? First, it wasn't included on the school's list of required tests and vaccinations and secondly, they cautioned him that a positive result could cause him a lot of problems with his insurance and employment!

Concerns about the possibility of a cross-reaction due to the vaccinations if he was ever tested later in life were summarily dismissed.

When the clinic finally accepted the fact that Michael still wanted the test done, they first made him... (read more here)