There was a great deal of misinformation among the public and even medical personnel about/ Herpes / HIV at that time. While to your face the doctors and nurses might say one thing, in practice they did take a lot of precautions b/c no one was completely sure how HIV was transmitted.
Even the public pools usually has a list of diseases that would bar one from swimming. I googled and found the World Health Org. 2006 and the risks associated with public pools. I found that fecal matter was a huge concern, either human or from birds droppings. Here is the link.
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/bathing/srwe2full.pdf
scroll down to Microbial hazards.