Control of Epidemics

To the Editor: In his article (March 12, 1992, issue)¹ on the public health measures to control the diphtheria epidemic in the early decades of this century, Kleinman identified an important element of the campaign as the positive light in which selective screening for infection was presented to the public. This was not simply an attempt to manipulate public attitudes, but an approach that reflected the true importance of screening for the control of the disease. We may therefore regard it as a misfortune that from the beginning, screening for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been given so negative…