Battle continues to contain spread of A.I.D.S.

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 7

Battle continues to contain spread of A.I.D.S.

PA Wellington Keeping the number of A.LD.S. cases down to the low hundreds would be an “incredible victory,” according to the Gay Taskforce spokesman, Mr Bill Logan. Mr Logan was replying to comments by the A.I.D.S. Foundation chairwoman, Ms Kate Leslie, who said the number of A.I.D.S. cases in New Zealand was likely to climb into the hundreds. So far, 14 cases of the disease have been notified in New Zealand. Mr Logan said New Zealand had been privileged to learn early about A.I.D.S. and how to stop its spread. Ten A.I.D.S. cases had been notified by June, 1985, and Mr Logan said that in the normal course of events, there should have been 20 cases of the disease notified by now. Overseas patterns indicated that the number

of cases doubled every six months. Mr Logan said, however, evidence now showed that this doubling trend slowed down over time, and this seemed to be happening here already. The 14 cases notified to authorities here at present were lower than expected, he added. Mr Logan said he would have expected there to be 40 notified A.LD.S. cases by this June, 80 by the end of the year, and 160 cases by June, 1987. It seemed that the number of cases would not now progress this quickly, although it was inevitable that the total of A.I.D.S. cases would reach the hundreds. “If it could be kept to the low hundreds, it would be an incredible victory,” said Mr Logan.