Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner - Thursday, March 20, 1997
Lisa M. Krieger, Examiner Medical Writer
"This is a time to be extraordinarily optimistic," Brown said Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the Ninth National AIDS Update Conference in San Francisco. "You can see the light at the end of the tunnel ... with a whole new set of options.
"But we are on the threshold of a whole new set of problems. ... Forgotten populations need to be addressed," he said. "This city must now recommit itself ... and (turn) the theoretical into the reality of actual treatment."
About 16,000 of 24,000 San Franciscans with AIDS have died since the beginning of the epidemic more than a decade ago, but now "we could cut our loss to almost zero," Brown said.
Medical science has made impressive progress in conquering the AIDS virus, agreed Dr. Marcus Conant, a longtime San Francisco HIV expert. Despair over HIV has been replaced with optimism as many people on new "combination therapies" of anti-viral agents have literally risen from their death beds.
But until the social sciences catch up - through improved prevention, education, testing and access to treatment - the epidemic won't be over, Conant said.
Conant warned that some San Franciscans can't get the life-prolonging drugs because their insurance doesn't pay for them.
Others can get the drugs, but don't stick with complicated treatment regimens. And many people don't even know they're infected.
"We can stop this disease. This disaster can be stopped with therapies," Conant said. "But we must come together to make them available. We must begin today."
Conant says he is working with Brown and local health experts to develop a program that will reach San Franciscans who have eluded treatment.
Teens, the underinsured, substance abusers, the mentally ill and others could be helped by a comprehensive program to return them to health, he said.
Such a program would help not only the people infected with HIV, but society as well, because there will be less demand for doctors' visits, hospital admissions and disability payments - and fewer infections.
Brown announced that later this year, he will host an AIDS summit to study the re-entry into the workplace by people with HIV, with a specific focus on issues of long-term health care, disability benefits, and workplace stress.
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