Needle-pokings prompt HIV scare at Pa. school

PHILADELPHIA -- The case of a youngster pricking 16 to 19 pupils with a needle at a Philadelphia elementary school earlier this week has further frightened families after it was reported that one of the children who was poked is HIV-positive.

Parents are furious, and scared.

Although district officials would not confirm it during a community meeting at Taylor Elementary School on Thursday, several parents attending said they had been notified by medical staff at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children that one of the children is infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Hospital personnel called the already-jittery parents back to the hospital Thursday morning for more testing because of the unexpected finding.

''I was told . . . one of the kids tested was HIV-positive," said Martha Adorno, adding that she had mentioned this at the closed-to-the-media meeting. District chief executive Paul Vallas and other representatives from the district and the Health Department attended the meeting.

Some students already have begun taking a combination of medicines -- 100 milligrams of Retrovir (or AZT, an HIV treatment) and 150 milligrams of Epivir (an HIV and hepatitis treatment), in addition to a stomach protector -- to prevent the onset of the virus. One poking victim, George Whitaker, 10, reported having felt dizzy from the medication, and another, Jonathan Rodriguez, also 10, said he had vomited after taking it.

Jonathan's mother, Maritza Ponce, said: ''He's asking me what does the word AIDS mean, and I don't know how to explain to him what does it mean. As a mother it hurts to explain to a son why they are saying why he might have AIDS."

Meanwhile, the girl who started the trouble has been suspended from class and likely will be transferred to another school, for her own protection, Vallas said.

On Wednesday morning, she brought in her mother's 2-millimeter-long pin-prick, used for diabetes-related blood-testing, and began poking other students at breakfast time, Vallas said.

''She came up and poke me for no reason on my arm," said George Whitaker, who was doing a writing exercise when he was poked.

George's aunt, Marisol Rivera, said the girl ''was asking kids if they wanted to get poked." Rivera said that her daughter responded, ''Get out of my face."

Two of Mike Gonzalez's children were pricked by the girl, whose name was not released.

Gonzalez said his 10-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter had been tested and were now ''afraid," he said.

Vallas and the others in attendance at the meeting tried to reassure the parents.

''How can you say, don't worry? Somebody tested positive for HIV," Gonzalez said. ''How can you tell us just to calm down, don't worry about it?'

After the meeting, Vallas told reporters: ''I'd be frustrated and angry, too, if this happened, regardless of the explanation given."

Angry parents complained earlier that they had not been notified immediately of the prickings and that school officials had dragged their feet in seeking medical attention for the children.

Vallas acknowledged the delay, saying that while the first child was probably poked before 8:30 a.m., it wasn't until 12:50 p.m. that the principal was notified.

One parent told the Philadelphia Daily News that after learning of the prickings, the pupils' teacher initially instructed the children to ''sit down and be quiet."

Vallas said he was uncertain why it had taken so long to report the first incident. The teacher took a sick day Thursday.

Adorno says her son Jose Luis, 11, always arrives from school at 3:10 p.m. But about 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, Jose Luis' friend came by to tell Adorno that he was at the school with his classmates who had been pricked.

She called the school offices and asked the secretary ''when was I going to be called about my son being in the office," Adorno recalled.

The district is offering any child who claims to have been pricked free medical testing at St. Christopher's. There, they will be checked for signs of hepatitis and HIV infections. The results will be confidential, he added.