AIDS Quarantine of Boy Called Error
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PENSACOLA, Fla. — A top health official Friday admitted the state erred by having a 14-year-old boy locked up in a mental ward to keep him from spreading AIDS, and he said he will ask a judge to lift the quarantine order.
The Health and Rehabilitative Services Department at a court hearing Tuesday will request that the youth be declared dependent. He will then be placed in a treatment program, department Secretary Gregory Coler said.
The boy was rejected by youth residential programs because he is infected with human immunodeficiency virus, a precursor to AIDS.
Circuit Judge William Frye had ordered the teen-ager confined at the hospital after a counselor from Coler’s department told him the boy presented a public health hazard because he was sexually active.
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