The San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, March 16, 2000
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

"Far too many policymakers yearn to believe that the worst is behind us," said Sandra Thurman, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. "But the sobering truth is that this pandemic is far from over. In fact, it is just beginning."

Thurman was the major speaker yesterday at the opening of the 12th National HIV/AIDS Update Conference, an annual meeting in San Francisco where AIDS advocacy groups, patient care workers, physicians and researchers gather to share the latest information on progress in therapy and prevention.

Federal law, known as the Ryan White Care Act, now provides more than $1.6 billion a year for medical care for the poorest AIDS patients. Passed 10 years ago and named for an Indiana boy with hemophilia who campaigned for public understanding of the disease, the act will expire this year unless it is renewed by Congress within the next two months.

President Clinton has already sought an additional $1.6 billion in federal funds for AIDS research and $700 million to find and apply the most effective prevention methods in the most hard-hit communities, Thurman said.

One of these is to end the federal ban on needle exchange, which Thurman agreed has been proved as a method for curbing the spread of AIDS among injection drug users.

"The blinding ignorance born of racism, sexism and homophobia still feeds this epidemic," Thurman said. "And we know that as AIDS continues its march more deeply into poor communities, drug use puts a growing number at risk and makes the dialogue related to needle exchange all the more important."

As she called on AIDS groups to push harder for the renewal of the Ryan White Act, Thurman said the nonpartisan measure has been hugely successful.

"It has created a continuum of care that is both compassionate and cost-effective -- one that saves both lives and money," she said.

Last year alone, Thurman said, the Ryan White Act helped provide the latest drug therapy to more than 100,000 poor people living with HIV infections and AIDS, and has served an estimated 500,000 people with other forms of care -- more than 60 percent of them poor. The act, she said, has cut the length of costly hospital care for AIDS patients by at least 30 percent, reduced AIDS mortality by 70 percent and curbed mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus during childbirth by 70 percent.

But the epidemic's disastrous effects are still falling disproportionately on the poor, women, minorities and drug addicts, Thurman said. The number of deaths from AIDS in the United States, for example, is declining three times faster for men than for women, and three times faster among white men and women than for African Americans. And while racial and ethnic minorities make up one-quarter of the U.S. population, they account for more than half of all AIDS cases and a growing proportion of new infections by HIV, the AIDS virus. "And though we have made progress in reducing infections and deaths among the larger gay community," Thurman said, "we know that for young gay men -- and particularly young gay men of color -- the epidemic is getting worse, not better."

The AIDS Update Conference, sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research, will continue through tomorrow with intensive workshops focusing on virtually all the problems affecting people with AIDS or HIV infection.
000316
SC000302

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2000. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2000. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .