The Bay Area Reporter - Friday, May 14, 1999
Bob Roehr

"The next generation of children shouldn't have this, it shouldn't be a part of their lives. We need to create a world in which it is safe to grow up, to love, to grow old, to live a long and healthy life.

"It really is all about money," he said. Money to prevent new infections and for services to keep people with HIV healthy and alive.

AIDSWatch '99 brought together more than 600 people in Washington May 2-4. A panoply of organizations offered background briefings and role-playing scenarios to prepare the advocates at the Sunday meeting. On Monday and Tuesday they attacked the Hill.

"Tell your own personal stories, or if that is too painful, tell other people's stories," urged Val Bias of the National Hemophilia Association, in sharing tips on meeting with congressmembers and their staffs.

NAPWA hosted a small dinner on Monday "to say thanks," with special honoree Dr. Mathilde Krim, chair of the Board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR).

Baker waxed eloquent in praise of Krim. "Her voice has always been so clear, and forthright, and honest, and it has also been so loving of our lives."

He praised Krim and Elizabeth Taylor "in partnership with each other as first among equals. We all depend on you for your guidance, for your resources, and for your tenacity."

Krim lauded the gay community, which united to face the catastrophe of AIDS "at first virtually alone à in devising and paying for the support of the sick and the education of the unwary."

She said that because of medically educated AIDS patients, "the patient-doctor relationship has changed forever in favor of more respect for the patient as a person and of his rights to a measure of autonomy."

Krim called for the protection of AIDS funding "from attacks by certain advocates for other diseases who have started a misguided disease-versus-disease war. We must convince them that rather than undermining our achievements, they should adopt the methods that we have used to achieve appropriate levels of funding against HIV/AIDS."

She urged the continued discovery of new drugs, immune reconstitution, and "a protective vaccine that can be made widely available and at low cost to developing countries."

Terje Anderson, NAPWA's policy director, called AIDSWatch '99 a great success. "It's important that people who use AIDS services were able to tell policy makers the incredible difference these programs make in their lives. It makes it far more than a number on a piece of paper or dollars amount in an appropriations bill."

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