In two years, at least 61 women had sex with a man who carried the AIDS virus before being shot to death in January.
Health officials in Missouri and Illinois suspect the number is higher. They are continuing to desperately search for former sexual partners of Darnell McGee - and their partners - to test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.So far, 12 women who had sex with the East St. Louis, Ill., man have tested positive for the AIDS virus, health officials say. Some are pregnant. At least one has delivered a baby infected with HIV.
"I have never seen a maelstrom like this before," said Richard Biek, chief of communicable disease control for the St. Louis Department of Health.
"It's frantic," added Beth Meyerson, chief of the bureau of sexually transmitted diseases for the Missouri Department of Health. "We need to find these people. This is a very serious health threat."
In Missouri and Illinois, it is a felony to knowingly spread HIV. Nationwide, few documented cases exist where one person has knowingly infected a half dozen or more people. In the early 1990s, the media focused on a dentist in Florida who had infected six of his patients with the AIDS virus.
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to get involved in the McGee case, area health officials said. An HIV specialist for the CDC wouldn't comment Thursday, citing confidentiality reasons.
Confidentiality prevented health workers here from commenting in detail on the McGee case, except to say that McGee knew he had the virus when he had sex with girls and women, ranging in age from 12 to 22. They were white and black, middle-class and poor, from all parts of the region.
Some girls told health officials that McGee cruised in front of junior high schools and skating rinks. He flattered them and promised gifts.
He preyed on girls with little or no confidence who were strangers to attention.
McGee tested positive for the AIDS virus in 1992.
On Jan. 15, McGee and a young woman were driving around in St. Louis. A man waved at McGee to stop. The woman got out of the car and walked away. The man went to the driver's window, took out a .45-caliber pistol and shot McGee in the shoulder at point-blank range, police said.
Police have no suspects. They're investigating if it was a revenge murder.