A.I.D.S. disease made notifiable

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 4

A.I.D.S. disease made notifiable

PA Wellington A.1.D.5., the disease which has baffled doctors and caused about 750 deaths, mostly in the United States, has been declared a notifiable disease in New Zealand.

No cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome have been reported in New Zealand, but the Minister of Health, Mr Malcolm, said that under a new regulation doctors, would be required to notify the Health Department should any turn up. Cases could then be investigated at an early stage and preventive measures taken against its spreading.

From New York it was reported yesterday that President Reagan will ask Congress for $4O million to fund A.I.D.S. research next year, twice what the Administration previously requested. Since the first case of A.I.D.S. was diagnosed in the United States in 1981, almost 2000 people have been stricken. About 750 have died, the New York report said.

The illness attacks the body’s immunity systems and leaves them open to disease.

Mr Malcolm said the disease could spread to New Zealand because cases have already been identified in Australia and the United Kingdom. Surveillance of any possible outbreak was important because of the high Hortion of people who from it.

“The mortality rate varies between 40 and 70 per cent. Although the exact cause of A.I.D.S. hasn’t been identified, it is known that it is likely to be transmitted by homosexuals with multiple partners,” said Mr Malcolm.

The Department of Health is advising homosexuals that they are unlikely- to contract A.I.D.S. if they confine themselves to one partner.

Ms Malcolm said there was also a possibility that A. could be spread by the use of unsterile equipment by drug addicts in the same way as Hepatitis B.