AEGiS-PRn: Huckabee's Defense of Earlier, Alarmist AIDS Stance Shows Unsuitability for Presidency, Says AHF

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Huckabee's Defense of Earlier, Alarmist AIDS Stance Shows Unsuitability for Presidency, Says AHF

PRNewswire - December 11, 2007

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today blasted former Arkansas Governor and current Republican Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, for his stubbornness and recent failure to apologize for alarmist statements made during his unsuccessful 1992 Senate campaign in which he called for people living with HIV/AIDS to be isolated from the general population. At the time, Huckabee told Associated Press in response to a candidates' survey on HIV/AIDS,"...we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague." He added in the survey, "It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents." Huckabee also called on Hollywood luminaries active in AIDS awareness and lobbying at that time to privately fund AIDS research from their "personal treasuries" rather than encourage and press the government to fund AIDS research.

"Mike Huckabee's alarmist statements on isolating or quarantining people living with HIV/AIDS and his position that the U.S. government was spending too much money on AIDS research were as patently wrong in 1992 as they are today," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Huckabee's stubbornness in not apologizing today for these earlier misguided statements demonstrates just how unsuitable he is to serve as President. With HIV rates rising so rapidly in the U.S. and globally, it would be a catastrophe to have someone so ignorant about the disease serving as the head of the executive branch of our government."

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention and education provider. In California, AHF operates the largest non-government HIV testing program, which conducts more than 15,000 HIV tests annually. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 61,000 individuals in 19 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org

Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

CONTACT: Ged Kenslea, +1-323-860-5225, +1-323-791-5523, gedk@aidshealth.org; or Lori Yeghiayan, +1-323-860-5227, +1-323-377-4312, lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org, both of AHF

Web Site: http://www.aidshealth.org/

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