Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc.; Monday December 8, 1997 - 7:12 AM EST

The 32-member panel in its second "progress report" faulted the administration, like its predecessors, for failing "to lay out a coherent plan of action" to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus, HIV.

"Funding for HIV prevention remains inadequate, particularly when compared with the monumental American bill for medical expenses," it said. In addition, "far too many Americans lack access to effective medications," it added.

"Although powerful evidence of the effectiveness of HIV prevention demands a robust and energetic response, the administration has failed to provide such bold leadership," the report said.

Overall, it said Clinton had "dramatically" improved the national response to AIDS since he took office in 1993. Funding for AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health had grown 50 percent since the start of the administration and funds were being spent "more efficiently and strategically," it said.

"However, most of these important strides occurred during the president's first term," which ended in January, it added.

"Despite substantial and diligent efforts ... progress in the federal response to AIDS has stalled in recent months, contributing to a sense of diminished priority for AIDS issues during the president's second term," the report said.

Specifically, it criticized the administration's failure to find ways to expand Medicaid, the combined federal and state health program for the poor, to cover all low-income people with HIV early in the course of the disease.

It called on the administration to push for the removal of a congressionally mandated ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs.

"Perhaps most disturbing is the continued prohibition on federal funding for needle exchange programs despite clear scientific evidence of the efficacy of such programs in preventing new HIV infections without increasing substance use," the panel wrote.

Sandra Thurman, director of the White House office of National AIDS policy, said she shared the advisory panel's "sense of urgency and frustration" but rejected the notion that progress had stalled.

"There is no absence of will to meet this challenge," she said in a statement. "There is, however, a different sense of what can be accomplished in an often polarized political environment in which ideology can overwhelm science."

"The struggle to get the best quality of care and the best medications to all HIV-positive Americans is a very difficult fight and one I know the president is committed to winning," Thurman added.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, endorsed the panel's conclusions, calling for bolder leadership "to continue its strong record on HIV and AIDS issues."

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