San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - 27 March 1996, p.A13
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer

Results of the survey, sponsored by the Menlo Park-based Kaiser Family Foundation, suggest that Americans in great numbers are embracing once-taboo AIDS prevention measures such as AIDS education for preteens, condom distribution in schools, television advertising of condoms and needle exchanges -- the latter a measure considered politically too hot to handle by the Clinton administration.

"We've been working very hard to get the message out that we can fight the spread of HIV through education. It is very encouraging that two-thirds or more of Americans are acknowledging the importance of these kinds of efforts," said Timothy Rodriques, a spokesman for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The poll found that 72 percent of Americans think that major television networks should accept condom advertising and 63 percent believe that there should be more references to condom use in movies and television.

Americans remain split, however, on the issue of condom distribution in high schools. Forty-nine percent of those polled said students should receive only information in schools, while 46 percent said schools should make condoms available to teenagers.

A growing body of scientific evidence supports the view that needle exchange programs -- which allow injection drug users to swap a used hypodermic needle for a clean one -- can reduce the spread of HIV infection without increasing drug abuse. But fearful of being tarred in a presidential election year with being soft on drugs, the Clinton administration has refused to endorse needle exchange programs despite the entreaties of AIDS prevention experts.

California Governor Wilson has also vetoed on three successive occasions bills passed by the state Legislature that would legalize needle exchange programs that have been carried out by San Francisco in defiance of state law. Nearly 70 needle exchange programs operate nationwide, about half in direct violation of the law.

"The public is showing that it is more adept at AIDS prevention than the president or Governor Wilson," said Dr. Peter Lurie of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies in San Francisco, a prominent advocate for needle exchange programs.

Lurie said politicians have raised the specter of widespread public opposition to needle exchanges as "an excuse to do nothing."

The telephone survey of 1,500 adults selected at random across the country found that 44 percent felt that AIDS was the nation's most urgent health problem, far outstripping cancer and lack of health insurance, both of which were cited as urgent by 27 percent of those polled.

More than half of those responding, however, vastly underestimated the devastation already caused in the United States by the epidemic: 54 percent think that 100,000 or fewer Americans have died of the the disease. In fact, the U.S. death toll now exceeds 300,000. The disease has killed nearly 16,000 in San Francisco alone.

The poll showed that most Americans -- seven out of 10 -- are also unaware that drug therapies can offer some protection against the disease to the unborn babies of HIV-infected women. Two years ago, the National Institutes of Health reported results of a study showing that a regimen of the anti- viral drug AZT before childbirth can reduce by as much as two- thirds the risk of transmission of AIDS from mother to child.

Other common misconceptions prevalent in America, according to the poll, are that AIDS symptoms develop within five years of infection -- in fact the average is 10 to 12 years; and that people who donate blood are somehow at risk for AIDS. Polls showed 51 percent of the population still hold that mistaken belief. There is virtually no chance that someone donating blood can catch the disease.

Americans show almost unanimous support for providing AIDS information to children in schools, although they differ over the age at which students should begin to receive such information. The poll found that 69 percent of Americans favor starting AIDS education for children by the age of 12 at the latest. A quarter of those responding would not start such education until their children were ages 13 to 15; while 7 percent would begin AIDS education for those age 6 or younger.

Dr. Mark Smith, Kaiser Family Foundation executive vice president, said the poll results show Americans are, on the whole, doing a good job educating themselves about the disease. "Without a cure or vaccine," he said, "an informed public is still the best way to prevent the spread of AIDS."

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BC: CHART:

AIDS EDUCATION

-- At what age should children start receiving AIDS information in schools?

Percent of American adults who say...

10-12 years old 49% 7-9 13% 6 and younger 7%

No AIDS education 1% 13-15 25% 16-17 3% Don't know/refused 2%

-- Should condoms be provided in high schools? Or, just AIDS information?

Percent of American adults for favor...

Just provide information 49% No AIDS education 1% Make condoms available 46% Don't know/refused 4%

-- Support efforts to prevent AIDS Percent of American adults who favor...

Providing AIDS information in high schools 95% Condom ads on network TV 72% Providing clean needles to IV drug users 66% References to condom in movies and TV shows 63%

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

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