AIDS patients have been dubbed the new “lepers” of society, but aggressive education can dispel myths about the disease and reduce society’s fear of the epidemic, according to one AIDS specialist.

Dr. Renslow Sherer, an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome specialist at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, said Monday night at an AIDS forum that the AIDS epidemic has two dimensions—the virus itself and the fear associated with the disease.

“Fear plays an extraordinary role. Only education and prevention” can stop the spread of AIDS, Sherer said.

Sherer, along with two experts on AIDS, called for education to dispel fears associated with the disease at the forum, which was held Monday at the Holmes Student Center.

The Syndrome is caused by a virus known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which attacks the body’s immune system, Sherer said. It is called a “syndrome” because of the variety of clinical conditions caused by the virus. About half of AIDS patients get a rare form of pneumonia known as PCP, he said.

Education also is needed in rural areas such as DeKalb, said Jim Corrigan, chaplain at Rush/Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. Although DeKalb has few cases, he said many persons in rural areas have relatives in larger cities with the disease.

There are 820 AIDS cases in Illinois, Sherer said, adding that the number is expected to increase to 14,000 by 1991. For everyone who has AIDS, he said thirty persons carry the HIV virus and can transmit it, but are unaware they have it.

Sherer said people with AIDS usually do not show symptoms until four and a half years after contracting the HIV virus. He said persons who test positive for the disease have a 30 percent or better chance of having AIDS in the future.

The proposal to test persons for the AIDS virus mandatorily and quaratine those with it is part of the fear epidemic associated with the disease, Sherer said. While he encouraged persons in high-risk groups to seek a test for the virus, Sherer opposed mandatory testing.

Sherer said the test is not “an AIDS test.” He said the test only “recognizes persons with a chance of getting AIDS. If you test positive it doesn’t mean you’ll ever get the disease,” he said. Persons with a positive test should seek a second opinion, he said.

There are three ways of contracting the disease, Sherer said. Unprotected sexual contact and sharing needles can cause AIDS. Children born to mothers with the disease also could have AIDS, he said. While transfusions have caused AIDS in the past, new screening procedures have made it a very unlikely cause, Sherer said. There is no chance of getting AIDS from donating blood, he said. There is no evidence that AIDS can be transmitted through “casual contact,” including saliva, he added.

While AIDS has been traditionally labeled a disease of bisexuals and drug users, Sherer said cases among heterosexuals have been rising. About one to two percent of AIDS cases are heterosexuals, and that number is expected to rise to four percent by 1991, he said.