Kimberly Bergalis (January 9, 1968â??December 8, 1991) was an American woman who claimed to have been infected with HIV by Dr. David Acer, a gay dentist with AIDS.
Bergalis, of Fort Pierce, Florida, stated she was a virgin who never took IV drugs or received a blood transfusion.
Bergalis insisted that the only instance in which she could have been exposed to HIV was through her HIV-positive dentist, during a December 1987 procedure to have her molars removed. Her dentist, Dr. David Acer, had been diagnosed with AIDS three months before performing the procedure and died in September 1990. The time between Bergalis' dental procedure and the development of AIDS (24 months) was short; 1% of infected homosexual/bisexual men and 5% of infected transfusion recipients develop AIDS within 2 years of infection (5,6). (CDC (1990-07-27). Possible Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus to a Patient during an Invasive Dental Procedure.)
The CDC concluded that Ms. Bergalis, as well as 5 other unrelated patients, had contracted the same strain of HIV from Dr. Acer. CDC-conducted tests of DNA sequencing showed that there was a high correlation between the strain of HIV carried by Ms. Bergalis and the others, and that of Dr. Acer. Later review of the CDC tests strengthened the case that Bergalis's HIV infection was linked to Acer. [1]
Accusations against Bergalis
During the last months of her life, Ms. Bergalis' case was cited by some politicians and journalists as an example of a 'blameless' HIV infection that had been allowed to happen due to the CDC and the healthcare industry being overly responsive to the concerns of AIDS activists and the gay community, with critics often claiming that Dr. Acer was "... an admitted homosexual." In an obituary, the National Review wrote that Bergalis "...came to feel she had a special calling...to bring a glimmer of truth, however forlorn, into a debate characterized by confusion, denial, smugness, and suicidal self-indulgence... 'No sexual history' is how the jaded describe a chaste woman of 23 who, as Miss Bergalis explained to disbelieving interviewers, 'wanted to wait for marriage.' Marriage and its joys will never come for Kimberly Bergalis, but in her integrity and courage she affirmed that other things were also precious."
Bergalis actively participated in several actions by congressmen to pass legislation restricting the activities of persons infected with HIV. Shortly before Bergalis' 1991 death, despite failing health, she testified before the Congress in support of a bill mandating HIV tests for healthcare workers, but the legislation did not pass.
Almost immediately after Bergalis' death, additional information about Ms. Bergalis' sexual behavior came to light, and questions were raised as to whether Acer had, in fact, had anything to do with Bergalis' HIV infection. Concerns were raised about the veracity of Bergalis' claims that she had never engaged in sexual intercourse. In her book The Gravest Show on Earth: America in the Age of AIDS, author Elinor Burkett notes that doubt about the truth of Kimberly Bergalis' "virgin infection" claim "...was first raised at the February 1992 CDC meeting...a gynecological examination of Kimberly indicated that she had genital warts â?? the result of a sexually transmitted disease... Bergalis' vaginal opening was wide and her hymen was 'irregular at 3 and 9 o'clock,' conditions 'consistent with sexual intercourse.' Medical examinination also found lesions; a biopsy showed them to be human papillomavirus."
In June 1994, CBS's 60 Minutes aired a program reporting that Bergalis was treated for genital warts, a sexually transmitted disease, and had admitted on videotape to having sex with two different men during her life.
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Originally Posted by lisalouver
Who knows?
) so I assumed I lost it that way.....they had to break my water when I had Sara because she could not crown, and guess what was hindering that....yep, my hymen.......it had never broke......TMI, too bad 