THE NATION bn AIDS Reagan admtnlstratton did too lfttlefor too long By bretta Mclaughlin Globe Stall I f the first c- of AIDS had struck the United StatesOlympIc tam. the White Hwae reaponx lo the dl- would have been very dllferent - quick. sympathellc and opnhandcd abut spending public money lo flnd out what was lnfectlng such stalwart exam- pks of American youth. That's what the gay communrty wu saying back In 1961~82 In the Immediate aftermath of the dlscovery of this lethal new dlaaac amon f homosexual men In New `fork and Call omla. At lhe time. It ~a.9 constdered an un- fair ludgmenl. Too llttle was known aboui ths dl-: how deadly It was or how bls the outbrak would be how cum- pkx rh; AIDS laqulrwl Immune deflclen- cy syndmmcl vlw. how costly the treat- ment. how harmwlng the lllnaa. how dlf- flcult prevention. Ya(or groamd shady Ioaa All that la known now. And the view of the gay community - that the AIDS problem woukl not gel the attmtlon It de served from this admtnlatratlon because the dl- struck the "wrong" group flnl- haa been vmdkatcd. Becauw Rwgan and key members of hlr admlnlatratlon have played polltlo wlth AIUDS. major ground haa already been k& In the flghl to Ilmll the spread d thla dm The most pratlgiow .+ena organlza- tlons In the nation. the Natlonal Acadc- my of Set- and the Inalltule of Mail- cme. admltted last Thursday to being "quite honr%ly frightened" about the prospects for a natlonwlde AID9 calastrc- phe. Though the rlentists ccruched thetr crttlcl3m rn polite terms. thrv firmly la- b&d lhe federal government's response to the AIDS cpldemlc "woefully Inad- quate" In tama d pubk educatton. SCI- enllhcally unmor&naiad and iacklng In cohatvcneaa: they alao said the war ag.lnal ND8 haa ban vaaliy uMund- cd. Wllh backhanded courtesy. they urged Ptmidml Raw lo take on a "kaderahlp mk." one he haa ao Iar avotd- cd. though he haa occupial the Oval Of- flee for the flvc veara alnce the NDS out- break bqan d&lne the flrat year d hia rust term. Throughout that time. lhe WhlIc Hot&e has aald Illlk about AIDS. Not OM :BaltImore. dIsc& AIDS epidemic in Wasblngton~laat reek. lo rccugn1z.s the urgency of AIDS. clllng It way beck In 1984 as "the nation's num- from previous page kms rise tenfold - to 270.000. and ;I 79.tX9 deaths. ' The comprehcnolvc Nallonal Academy . :of Sciences report warns that the num- bers may reach far higher. `The number of ;those who arc slknlly Infected. ,bul who :CO~~M to full-blown AIDS. 1s sllll rising. `Up to 50 percent of the 1.3 mllllon bc %eved infected may be felled over five to ,,I0 years. possibly as many as 7SO.000 :Americans. 2 There was btltcr Irony In the prcal- %cnl's only AIDS dlmtlve. a call last Fcb ::ruaty for "a malpr report" on AIDS to be prepared by US Sur@on General Everett Koop. Whlk publlcly falling far the Koop report and designating AIDS "one of our $lghM prlonlles." Reagan. on the same day, also submitted budget requests TC +clng funds for-AIDS research and other :.AIDS prr@Xa. Congress had ncsrl~ tripkd Reagan's $85 million request for 1986 AIDS funds to $244 mllllon. Yet. whlk asking&top to study AIDS. saytng "we're going to con- tinue lo try to develop and teat vacclna. mnd we're going to fmm also on prevm- .llon." Reagan sought lo rcsclnd $SO mll- rllon from the 19.99 AIDS budget. That pave alone would have stymlal the cm- atlon of regtonal trcatmtit centers for testing cxperhnental dNgs - what cx- jxrts say Is the only ray of hope for AIDS `batlents. Cmgrus blocked the cutback. kc&oas again htorwlla , For fkcal 1967. Reagan asked for only 5214 mllllon for AIDS. 530 mllllon less than the 19136 appropriation. Agaln Con- gress intervened. nearly doubling this ,AlDS budget to $410 mllllon. The only member of Reagan's Cabinet b&-one health prlorlty." was Sxctaiy for Health and Human Scrvlcu Margaret Heckler. A year later. she was replaced by Dr. Otis Bow-en. whose highest priority IS an lnaurance scheme to cover cataatmph- lc nursing home btlls and other Mailcare colda. Reagan hna only spolcm out tw-a other Uma on AID% to send his and Nancv's mndolmas lo their forma movie col- league. Rook Hudson, when he was dying of AIDS: and to recently suggmt that Arnerlcans might bank their own blood. as a precaution agalnsl an AlDScontaml- natal blood hansfusion. C!rlUa say that the lack of pruldm- llal kadcrshtp against AIDS has accom- modated the hlgbly vocal. fundammtallst rellglc+polltlcal factions that support hlm. From Jerry Falwell to Lyndon LaRcmche. the preachers of pollllcal extremes have used the AIDS tragedy to condemn home- sexual behavior and terrify the public. . But wblk polltics arc king played with AIDS. the dl- Itself Is threaten- lng lo baow P ballooning epldanic here and around the world - pcrbspa the most challenging Infecrtoua agent' ever cnn- fmnlcd by modern actmw. -ofthediao8n Tb~haancvcrbcmamlcmkbdorc like the AIDS vhua that. like a double agent. datroya the very system that should protect a person against Infection. Nor has there ken a vlt%s that slngla out lo kill the ~rccisc cells that should set the protective p- In mollon. AIDS pa- tlmts die of latent lnfectlons a.ld cancers that arise when they arc so compmmiaed. None d this Is news to the Reagan ad- mlnlstratlon. The grtm nature of tins dls- case Is evident In the bleak statiatks wb llrhcd weekly by the kdcral Cent& for Disease Control. Evm ao. many ha? begun to question Whllc pubkQ' calling for a major study on AID!3 from the US Surgmn General last February. and dcslgnating the battle agamst the dlseasc `one of our hlghclt pt-lorltlcs.' President Rca- gan. on the same day. also submltted bud- get rq.tcs~ re- ducing funds for ADS re- search and 0th. er AIDS pfO- lecu. haa there ban a call for maJOr acllon. cvm though the numtxr oi th@!x stncken with the Trreveralbly lethal form of the duear haa soared to 27.000. with mom Ihan half already dead. In addltton. m0rc than a quarter oi a m1lllon Amerkana have a chronic. dcblll- tatlng and somelImes faral form of the dlaeaae. Aa many aa I.5 mllllon Amert- cans are bclleved to tx Infected. Far wome Is comlngmn. The US Pub tic Health Scrvlm. In a May report. aald that the next five yeara rlll aa the AIDS Cont'd on next page whether the CDC has avoided - or at least delayed - reporting what would be viewed as pollllcally unwelcome ramlflcatlons of AIDS. lnslders say there was CDC resistance to publlshlng mllltaty studies oi recruits who are Infected - proportlonateiy four tlma as many as clvlllan blood donors. These reports were the llrst and the strongest to detect the.spread oi the dls- ease to America's young heterosexual adults and by women to men. Only last week dld CDC hlghllgbt flnd- Ings that show AIDS Is twice as prevalent In the natlol's black and Hlspanlc adults and children. panlcukrly the poor. m proportlon to then numbers - though the data have been gathered across four Yea". CDC has still not defined the chrontc form of AIDS. nor sought Its rcportlng. While strict dcflnlllons of AIDS were lusti- fled early In the eptdemlc In order to'care- fully monllor It. many, Including the Academy sclmtlsta. now feel that AIDS- related cas" should be recognized- - counted and provided for. By excluding them from offlclal deflnlllons and counts. for whatever reason. CM: also has kept official AIDS numbers artlflctally low and prcvmlcd chmnlc AIDS patlents from bt lngellglble for publicly funded health and dlsablllty bendits. One doctor's ruailcg . Dr. J&s Noble. dlrector of Infectious dw al Camey Hospital In Boston. a faclllly that cares for a large share of the ctty's poor, cxpr- the view of many doclota now trwtlng AIDS patlents. when he says. "Lack of knowledge about the ex- tent and the Impact of diseases caused by the AIDS virus among the urban poor Is an mortnoua pmblem. Thls problem has been negkctal by authorltks from the president on down." Because too llltk has been done for too long. It may now be too late to avert a na- llonal health disaster. When the Natlonal Academy of SCI- enfc pncllsta, who dcvlacd the swceplng new AIDS report. were asked who 1s now at risk for AIDS IAmerIca's blood supply Mng vhtually AlDsfrcel. they answered: drug addicts. their sexual partners, their children to be and anyone - gay or straight. city or rural - at risk for a sex- ually tt'anamlltal disease. Those diseases range from 90.000 aua of syphylla a year lo 1.8 mllllon ol gonorrhm. While these diseases may be more eaally spread than AIDS. the dlffer- ma Is that they arc cut-able and not for- eyc~ transmlssable as la AIDS. Dr. Koop finally faced up to the mcn- ace d AIDS In his report: urging all-out prcvmllve sex cducatlon for the public. starting as early as the fourth grade. Evm here..however. polltln seemed still to br the foremost consldcratlon. Koop's report was to be Issued "around the first of June." He did not re lease It. however. unlll a week after he was bridal on the content of the Acade- my panel's study - In tlme to take the g!csa off that rqmrt and to give the mls- takm Impresston that the While House had done somethIng about AIDS.