San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - Tuesday, December 17, 1996 - Page A1
Louis Freedberg, Chonicle Washington Bureau

An administration official said that the strategy, which was approved yesterday by the President's Advisory Council on AIDS by a 26-to-1 vote, is the first of its kind since the start of the epidemic 15 years ago.

The strategy lays out six goals described as "simple but vital" to eradicate AIDS:

-- Developing a cure and a vaccine;

-- Reducing and eliminating new infections;

-- Guaranteeing access to high- quality care for AIDS patients;

-- Fighting AIDS-related discrimination;

-- Translating scientific advances into improved care and prevention;

-- Supporting efforts to combat AIDS in other countries.

"It is not a list of suggestions or recommendations, it is the administration's action plan," said the official, who asked not to be identified. "It sends an important message that this is a priority for the president, and that he will work systematically towards these goals over the next four years."

Patsy Fleming, head of the White House Office on AIDS Policy, will present the strategy to the president today, and he is expected to endorse it immediately. The plan does not specify how much it will cost to implement the goals.

The strategy is the culmination of months of work involving virtually every major government agency, including town meetings in San Francisco and a dozen other cities as well as consultations with national AIDS organizations.

AIDS organizations welcomed the report yesterday but criticized what they said were glaring shortcomings.

They said the 40-page report does not call for lifting the ban on using federal funds for needle exchange programs, nor does it envisage the appointment of a Cabinet-level AIDS "czar," as recommended by many advocacy organizations.

"It represents the consolidation of government efforts to prevent AIDS into one blueprint," said Robert Bray of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in San Francisco. "Unfortunately, that blueprint is incomplete and has a lot of holes in it."

But administration officials said the president's budget for 1998, to be announced in February, will contain significant increases to meet the various goals, such as more funds to the National Institutes of Health to develop an AIDS vaccine.

They said that Congress has requested the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare a report by February 15 showing that needle exchange programs lead to lowered rates of HIV infection and do not promote increased drug use.

"It would be inappropriate for this strategy to interfere with that process, but it does not close the door (on lifting the ban)," an official said.

As for calls to appoint an AIDS "czar" to the Cabinet, the official said Clinton is satisfied with the ability of the Office of AIDS Policy, which he created four years ago, to focus national attention on the epidemic.

AIDS advocates said that much will depend on how effectively the strategy will be implemented.

"On the one hand, it is good that the administration is making this a high enough priority to have a document like this starting off the second term, but action is more important than issuing reports," said Paul Di Donato, public policy director for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

"It doesn't require rocket science to figure out what to do," said Dan Wohlfeiler, education director of the STOP AIDS Project in San Francisco. "What it requires is the political will to back it up."
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