AIDS Activists Urge Funds for Prevention Programs

WASHINGTON —  Demanding millions more for HIV prevention and televised condom ads, AIDS activists said Monday that the nation has slacked off vital efforts to keep Americans--especially young people--from catching the AIDS virus.

Saving lives isn’t the only issue. Every year at least 40,000 Americans catch HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. An estimated half of those stricken are under 25. They add $6.2 billion in lifetime treatment costs to the nation’s health care bill, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The CDC hasn’t won a budget increase to fight new infections in three years, and research suggests some people most at risk of HIV have become complacent, activists said. Two-thirds of gay men say they’ve had unprotected sex at least once in the last 18 months, concluded one study presented at last month’s World AIDS Conference.

“AIDS drugs cost $40 a day” and do not cure the disease,” said Daniel Zingale of AIDS Action. “This condom costs 40 cents. Our plan today will not only save lives, it would save dollars.”

Secret Service agents arrested 10 other AIDS activists who briefly chained themselves to desks in the office of President Clinton’s top AIDS advisor to protest the administration’s refusal to allow federal funding of needle exchanges.

Experts say 33 people every day catch HIV--or human immunodeficiency virus--from dirty drug needles or sex with addicts. Scientific studies show letting addicts swap used needles for clean ones lowers the risk of spreading HIV.

About 110 U.S. needle exchanges operate with local or private funding, but communities say they need federal tax dollars to reach more addicts. Nonetheless, Clinton sidestepped a political fight by refusing in April to provide such federal aid.

“To have the United States government play politics with people’s lives--it’s just not OK anymore,” said Kenneth Vail, who runs a needle exchange program in Cleveland and was among those arrested. “I see on a daily basis people being turned away, and they go out and use dirty needles and contract the virus.”

AIDS Action brought public health officials and AIDS workers together Monday to call for new HIV prevention programs. The main demand was a 25% increase in the CDC’s $634-million budget for education and other programs.