{"id":1121,"date":"2010-10-12T11:54:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T15:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2022-01-19T12:31:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T17:31:58","slug":"worlds-collide-roberto-alomar-and-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/worlds-collide-roberto-alomar-and-hiv\/2010\/10\/12\/","title":{"rendered":"Worlds Collide: Roberto Alomar and HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"When-Worlds-Collide\"Now that a second woman<\/a> has accused Roberto Alomar of\u00a0having HIV, it’s probably time to give this sad story a look-over.\u00a0 After all, how often do these two worlds of mine — HIV\/ID (work) and baseball (lifetime hobby — my wife would say that’s a collosal\u00a0understatement) actually meet?<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar with the basics:\u00a0 Alomar was a staggeringly good player<\/a>, in the majors from 1988-2004, winning 10 Gold Glove Awards and making the\u00a0All Star team 12 times. He very nearly was elected this year to the Hall of Fame\u00a0in\u00a0his first year of eligibility (a very big deal), and all the baseball cognescenti think he’s an eventual shoe-in since he’s one of the best second basemen in history.<\/p>\n

That’s the good part.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there was this strange spitting incident<\/a>. And then, in 2009, an ex-girlfriend filed a $15 million lawsuit<\/a> saying he lied about his HIV status; Alomar denied the charges (sort of<\/a>), and was defended by his then girlfriend — who later became his wife. Then last week, the wife sued Alomar<\/a> with similar allegations.<\/p>\n

I can’t get into the “she-said, he-said” part, as I have no information beyond what’s available in the press. But if we start with the premise that Alomar might have HIV, here are some general thoughts:<\/p>\n