San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, March 25, 1999
Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the plain- talking former surgeon general of the United States, kicked off the National HIV/AIDS Update Conference, an annual event sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research, with a stirring plea to stay the course.

"We all have to be in this battle until it's over, and I want you to know it's not over," she said.

Few doubted that among the hundreds of veteran AIDS health care providers and public health workers in the crowd at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. But now, Elders reminded them, there's a new problem: growing public complacency.

Lulled by encouraging early results from new drug therapies, many Americans have decided AIDS is no longer much of a threat, said Dr. Mervyn Silverman, the former San Francisco public health czar and chairman of the AIDS conference, which runs through tomorrow.

He cited survey results that suggest people must be tuning out all the AIDS awareness campaigns.

The deadly virus is nearly always contracted through exchange of blood or other body fluids, often during unprotected sexual activity or from sharing intravenous drug paraphernalia.

In a survey taken in 1991, 41 percent still wrongly assumed that HIV could be contracted from sharing a drinking glass with an infected person. In 1997, the same misconception was found in 55 percent of those surveyed.

Similarly, 34 percent of those surveyed in 1991 worried about catching the AIDS virus from a public toilet seat, as compared to 41 percent in 1997. Eighty-seven percent of young Americans believe they are at no risk of contracting HIV. Yet about 1 in every 4 new infections occurs in the same age group, 17- to 22-year-olds.

"Either we're really getting dumber, or some of us in this room are not doing our jobs," Silverman said.

Mayor Willie Brown also stressed that the AIDS battle needs to be rejoined, even if the issues are shifting nowadays to include such problems as AIDS and the elderly, or workplace re-entry for AIDS patients who are moving from deathbeds to long-term drug therapy.

"This is a mammoth struggle," the mayor said.

Following him to the podium, Elders offered a familiar litany of suggestions, including universal access to health care and free needle- exchange programs, both of which seem as far from reality as when she was in office.

Later, she said she was still trying to find an effective champion on Capitol Hill who would support her.

She compared the experience of fighting AIDS to "dancing with a bear." "You can't sit down when you're tired," she said. "You have to wait until the bear is tired. Only then can you sit down."
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