Los Angeles Times - Tuesday March 17, 1992 Edition: Home Edition Section: Metro Page: 1 Pt. B Col. 5 Word Count: 632
James Rainey; Times Staff Writer

Caring for Babies with AIDS will add eight beds to the home for HIV-infected children that it operates near Culver City.

City and state officials have agreed to remove bureaucratic impediments to the opening of more homes to care for children infected with the deadly disease.

"A growing number of children are going to need other places to live because their parents are unwilling or unable to take care of them," said Marcy Kaplan, director of the Los Angeles Pediatric AIDS Network, which coordinates care for children with AIDS. "It's going to take its toll on the child welfare system."

About 40 to 60 children are born each year in Los Angeles County with the human immunodeficiency virus, a number that has remained constant for several years. But the number of total cases, now at least 255, is increasing, said Dr. Laurene Mascola, head of acute communicable disease control for the county.

"The cumulative number is increasing," Mascola said. "And as we get further on into the epidemic, these (mothers) are getting sicker and are less able to care for their children."

The problem has been compounded because most of the children come from dysfunctional families. Many are born with drug dependency. Often their parents have no stable income. And almost all have mothers who, themselves, must cope with the disease.

HIV-infected children are also difficult to place in foster homes because of the stigma surrounding the disease and because of the tremendous amount of care they require, said the home's executive director, Ginny Foat, former president of the California chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The house near Fairfax Avenue provides a haven for HIV-infected children until more permanent homes can be found, Foat said. Six children under age 5 live there now. A total of 18 children have stayed at the home since it was established as the first facility of its kind on the West Coast in June, 1990.

Some children have developed symptoms of the disease, but most have only tested positive for HIV.

With children staying for an average of eight months, few beds become open. That means that 35 children had to be turned away last year, said Sheri Szeles,the home's program director.

"We are only taking care of a very small part of the population right now," Szeles said.

With a $300,000 grant from the city of Los Angeles, the group purchased two adjoining properties, where it plans to build medical facilities and rooms for eight more children.

CBA hopes to raise $200,000 for the new facilities and have them open by July, Foat said.

Mayor Tom Bradley announced at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday that the city will assign an "expediter" to ensure that the application to expand the home will move quickly through the bureaucracy.

Bradley said all AIDS facilities that ask for it will receive faster service from city departments, cutting a month or more off the time it takes to approve their projects.

In the Legislature, Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), has introduced a bill that would allow pediatric AIDS homes to provide medical treatment.

Now, the state Department of Social Services does not recognize such facilities with a distinct licensing category. That means that caretakers at the Los Angeles home must apply to the state each time they want to provide medical treatment to a child.

"Every time a kid runs a fever or has diarrhea, we have to apply to the state to care for them," said Szeles. "Not just the big things. The little things too.

"This (legislation) will make it much easier."

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