Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Monday, December 16, 1996 14:59:00 PM.
Sonya Ross, Associated Press Writer
The strategy, to be released Tuesday, offers six general goals described as "simple, but vital" in eradicating AIDS, now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 25 to 44.
The goals are to work on developing a cure and a vaccine; to reduce and eventually eliminate new infections; to guarantee care and services for those with the AIDS virus; to fight AIDS-related discrimination; to translate scientific advances quickly into improved care and prevention; and to provide "strong, continuing support" for international efforts to deal with AIDS.
In her foreword, White House AIDS Policy Director Patricia Fleming said the strategy is not meant to address every aspect of AIDS immediately, but to act as a framework "that requires regular updating and adjustment as goals are reached and new challenges emerge."
The report offers federal agencies a guide in coordinating an official response to the AIDS epidemic. It notes that federal spending on AIDS research, prevention and care increased by 50 percent during Clinton's tenure, with $1.8 billion in Medicaid benefits going to HIV-AIDS patients in fiscal 1996. It estimates that the average lifetime cost of medical care after diagnosis of HIV infection is $119,000.
It does not lay out a specific legislative agenda or estimate how much money the federal government should spend on fighting AIDS.
It also does not say whether the president should lift a ban on providing federal funds for programs that allow drug users to turn in dirty syringes for clean ones. Needle-using drug users are a population "heavily affected" by AIDS, but the report does not offer a breakdown of their presence among the reported 566,002 AIDS cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26 percent of all AIDS cases in 1995 were attributed to injecting drug use, up from 17 percent in 1985. Thirty-five percent of infected heterosexuals contracted the virus through sex with an injecting drug user, the CDC said.
The Clinton-appointed Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS passed a resolution Monday that both commended Clinton for developing the first national AIDS strategy and warned that he has not gone far enough in addressing the needle exchange issue.
"In order to have any realistic chance of achieving the president's stated goals ... other important issues, such as how to decrease infections among intravenous drug users, must be addressed more comprehensively," the panel said.
Clinton promised in 1992 to allow federal funds to be used for exchanging needles "where local communities approve." Currently, such programs operate in at least 50 cities, using private or local funding.
Congress subsequently banned using federal money for needle exchange programs until their effectiveness at reducing the spread of HIV without increasing drug use could be proven. Both the CDC and the National Research Council have said that such proof exists.
Wayne Turner, a Washington spokesman for the AIDS activist group ACT UP, said Congress' ban has thwarted the potential success of needle exchange programs. Many of the nation's larger AIDS clinics -- where an abundance of intravenous drug users are likely to turn up -- can't participate because that could jeopardize their funding, Turner said.
"The president can talk about how he wants prevention, but he could end the ban on needle exchange with the stroke of a pen," Turner said. "That's the kind of thing that's really missing from this strategy."
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