Pubdate: Fri, 30 Nov 2007
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: B - 10
Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

THE AIDS FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER

Put the smartest scientific minds in a computer lab. Give them all 
the time and money in the world to design the perfect organism. It's 
doubtful they could come up with a tougher, more wily creation than 
the virus that causes AIDS.

Ponder its track record: Decades after it terrorized American cities, 
HIV was largely quelled through prevention, awareness and 
life-extending drugs. The national infection rate has steadied at 
40,000 new cases for years.

But the bug is back and in ways that make it as troubling as ever. In 
the recent past, the new cases were mostly found among needle users, 
a definably small (and politically unappealing) group. That's why 
this country has pretty much gone to sleep on a topic that once 
produced Hollywood movies, books and endless strategizing.

Now, HIV is heading back for a return engagement if the indicators 
are right. This time, the scourge needs to be finished off once and for all.

One report in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds 
infection rates rising among gay men, the group that first 
encountered HIV and battled back. Why the relapse? According to the 
health experts who wrote the report, the danger of HIV and AIDS is 
"not as frightening as it was," thanks to drugs that can forestall a 
full-blown case. Successful medicine invites complacency, it seems.

The second dose of bad news is a study breaking down HIV rates in 
Washington, D.C. The highest percentage of infected residents there 
are heterosexuals, not needle users or gay men. Though the nation's 
capital has a notably lousy health system, HIV has taken full 
advantage and broken out of its familiar boundaries. It's now 
behaving as it does in sub-Saharan Africa: reaching into the lives 
across the board: pregnant moms, men, women and families.

Decades into the AIDS plague, the answers are ready if the will can 
be found. Education and prevention - including wider testing - should 
be adopted to catch infection early. Also, a ban on federal money for 
needle exchange programs should be lifted. All three leading 
Democratic presidential contenders now favor allowing federal money 
for such needle swaps, a sign that a once-touchy idea is a now a 
so-what notion. On the GOP side, no one is railing against needle giveaways.

This Saturday marks the 20th World AIDS Day, one of those calendar 
markings that sounds contrived. But with the deadly - and avoidable - 
numbers heading in new directions, it's a moment to mark. The fight 
is nowhere near over. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake