A fear that 50 students might be exposed to HIV, led health officials to test students at Normandy High School, in St Louis, Missouri. The scare began when the St. Louis County Health Department said last week that a positive HIV infected person told health officials that as many as 50 students might be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Officials did not divulge the information on who the person was nor how the students were likely to have been exposed to the virus. The district is in consultation with national AIDS organizations to try to minimize the fallout and prevent the infection and misinformation from spreading.

Doug Hochstedler, Normandy School District spokesman said, "There's potential for stigma for all students regardless of whether they're positive or negative. The board wants to be sure all children are fully educated."

Normandy Superintendent Stanton Lawrence said there's no hysteria or panic, and school is running routinely and students remain focused on learning, despite concerns and distraction, he added."They recognize this situation is what it is, and doesn't mean school is over," he said. "Their concern is heightened, but we have to face it and do the responsible thing."

Hochstedler said the person's identity is not known, or even whether he or she is a student.

"We do know there was some potential exposure between that person and students," he said. "We don't know the individual or the route of transmission."

Health Department spokesman Craig LeFebvre has said the exposure possibilities include sexual activity, intravenous drug use, piercings and tattoos.

HIV tests are being conducted on the students at six stations in the high school gymnasium, one class at a time. Representatives from the Health Department are with the students, who are offered educational materials and a chance to ask questions before they are given an opportunity to be tested with a mouth swab, Hochstedler said. The test is optional and students may decline. No one in the school would know who did or did not get tested as they exit through a separate door.

"It's entirely up to the student," Hochstedler said. "There's a lot of stigma associated with this."

"Once they're tested," he said, "it's an issue between the department and the child and his family." The district will never know whether or how many of its students tested positive, he said.