Agenda Packets - 1987/02/09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Information on the AIDS epidemic. Robert Redfield, the man in charge of the U.S. armed forces mandrtory testing program for the AIDS virus, told the Wall Street Journal that the so-called ethical debate over AIDS testing is wasting precious time. AIDS is "the public health threat of the century ... We can't allow polit- ical sensitivities to prevent public -health policy," the Journal quoted Jerome Groopman of New England Deaconess Hospital in Jan. 28 feature article. Jan. 27 the New York Times. Joseph Lisa, chairman of the New York City Council's AIDS subcommittee, _- attributing current policy to "the political ramifications of the fact that, unfortunately, AILS manifested itself here first and foremost in the male homosexual community." To delay testing, Lisa told the Times, "is to delay the inevitable and cause many more innocent people to be infected." ' U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Otis Bowen admitted that AIDS could make the Black Death, "pale by comparision." "You haven't heard or read anything yet," Dr. Bowen told the National Press Club. "If we can't make progress, we face the dreadful prospect of a worldwide death toll in the tens of million a decade from now." lie said that 50 to 100 million people worldwide could have AIDS in the next two decades ---an estimate still less than the World Health organiza- tion's 100 million in the next five years.