The State - News from March 10, 1988

Members of the California Medical Assn.’s house of delegates voted to continue to back only voluntary testing for the presence of the AIDS virus in a person’s blood, rejecting efforts that would have allowed routine tests on patients. The group, at its annual convention in Reno, also decided that the presence of the deadly virus should not be considered a reportable disease, like other sexually transmitted communicable illnesses. “There were no major policy changes,” said Mark Madsen, a California public health official and spokesman for the delegates’ committee that made recommendations on the resolutions. “We continue to support voluntary testing. . . . We would only support mandatory testing if there were some viable public option out there that would interrupt the virus.”