The New York Times - June 25, 1983

AIDS is indeed a frightening disease: it kills many of its victims by sabotaging their immune systems. Its cause and cure have yet to be discovered. But it does not strike at random. It remains confined to male homosexuals, users of intravenous drugs, Haitian immigrants and, to a far lesser degree, the users of blood products, like hemophiliacs.

Those who are none of the above do not seem to be at risk. Of the 722 AIDS cases known to have occurred in New York City, according to Health Commissioner David Sencer, only four have not so far been assigned to one of the listed risk groups.

Nurses, doctors and laboratory workers who care for AIDS patients are the most obviously exposed persons. If AIDS were spread easily, by touch, coughing or sneezing, they would be the first casualties. So far there has not been one case of AIDS among health care workers who are not also members of the known risk groups. According to Edward Brandt, the top Federal health official, all present evidence indicates that "AIDS is spread almost entirely through sexual contact, through the sharing of needles by drug abusers and, less commonly, through blood or blood products."

A dozen AIDS cases have occurred among the 10 million people who have received blood in the last three years. In all but one, the donors appear to be free of AIDS. The evidently minuscule risk of acquiring AIDS from transfusions has been even further reduced by a recent requirement, agreed to by the homosexual community, that members of known risk groups who donate to blood banks will indicate that their blood be used only for research purposes.

An additional 13 cases of AIDS have occurred among people with the blood-clotting disorder known as hemophilia. They use not whole blood but plasma derived from thousands of donors, some of them paid. Their risk, though still very small, is inevitably higher than that of patients taking whole blood from a single donor.

The so-far unfounded fear that AIDS can be spread by casual contact has caused some of the victims to be doubly punished, once by a cruel disease, and again by landlords who evict them or friends who shun them. Homosexuals are afraid that the public's anxiety will revive discrimination and erode the civil rights they have gained.

AIDS patients need compassion. They should not be treated as lepers. When their disease is fully understood, the knowledge gained about immunology and cancer will benefit everyone. The homosexual community deserves support in its effort to combat the disease and to comfort its victims.

The Administration, saying it now considers AIDS the nation's No. 1 health priority, has diverted a small sum from existing budgets but wants no extra money appropriated for AIDS research. The meager amount that the National Institutes of Health has belatedly allocated from its $4 billion budget will not be dispensed for several months. One group of researchers has become so frustrated by the lack of Federal support that they have formed the AIDS Medical Foundation to raise private contributions.

"Some very promising research is taking place, but funding for that research is pitifully inadequate," says Mathilde Krim, a biologist at the Sloan-Kettering Institute of Cancer Research, who helped set up the foundation.

In caring for fellow citizens struck down by this bizarre and often lethal epidemic, the public has better lights to follow than the example of inattention and apathy that the Administration has set.

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