Director-General seeks to allay A.I.D.S. fear

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 2

Director-General seeks to allay A.I.D.S. fear

From

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington The Director-General of Health, Dr Ron Barker, took the unusual step yesterday of calling a press conference to contain public anxiety about the spread of A.I.D.S. Also present were the Health Department’s assistant director (disease control), Dr John Clements, and the chairman of the blood transfusion advisory committee, Dr Keith Ridings. The move came after radio reports of a primary school child found to have acquired immune deficiency syndrome antibodies in his system. The boy is believed to be a haemophiliac who was treated with contaminated blood product from Australia last year. Dr Barker said the reports had generated fears khat other children might

contract the virus but that the only common method of spreading it was through sexual intercourse — either heterosexual or homosexual.

He congratulated the New Zealand Educational Institute for the responsible attitude it had taken in declaring the boy fit for school and in insisting that he attend.

Dr Barker declined to disclose the identity of the child for reasons of medical confidentiality but emphasised that he did not have “the full-blown disease” and was not a notifiable case.

He said the presence of antibodies showed contact with the A.I.D.S. virus and the battle to resist it. It did not mean the person was still vulnerable to A.I.D.S. or would develop it. Sometimes this happened, sometimes not. The chances were not known and the incubation period could be as long as five years.

People receiving blood products were no longer at appreciable risk because of precautions the department had introduced after the contamination scare, Dr Barker said.

“For most people in New Zealand we can say that if they keep to one sexual partner, they have no chance of getting A.1.D.5.,” he said.

If they could not manage this, he recommended that both homosexuals and women insist on the use of condoms. This would not only markedly reduce the incidence of A.I.D.S. but also of other sexually transmitted diseases. Dr Barker said it was important that the public understand the dangers but they should not have “the daylights” scared out of them. He called on the news media to educate, but not to alarm. “If a homosexual continues to have intercourse with a number of sexual partners, he has every right to be afraid. He should be scared stiff- because he is running a very big risk but for the average person there is no need for unnecessary fear,” he said. Dr Barker confirmed that the Health Department had made a submission on the Homosexual Law Reform Bill but would not disclose what position it had taken. “The Press” believes that it has advocated legalisation because this would help in the fight against A.I.D.S. Dr Clements said the virus had almost certainly come in the first place from the animal population, probably somewhere in Africa and possibly the African Green Monkey.