Editor quits because of A.LD.S.
NZPA-AP Honolulu The managing editor of Hawaii’s largest newspaper has resigned, telling readers that he has A.LD.S. ‘I am going on the disability roll because of illness. The illness is A.LD.S., ‘ wrote William Cox, whose resignation was announced by the Honolulu “Star-Bulletin.” ‘As a journalist, I have spent my career trying to shed light in dark corners. A.I.D.S. is surely one of our darkest comers. It can use some light,' Mr Cox wrote in an editorial page column.
‘The dilemma for people with A.I.D.S. is that by treating the disase as a secret, we help breed more fear and shame and guilt. Only more openness about A.LD.S. will change that,' he said.
He was invading his own privacy in disclosing his illness because he wanted to follow in the tradition of journalists who had written about their illnesses in hopes of educating the public and
helping others with the disease to feel less alone. ‘Most of all, I am writing to say if we don’t want to be treated as a pariah, we have to stop acting like one.‘
He did not say how he might have caught A.LD.S. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome attacks the body’s immune system and leaves its victims susceptible to a wide variety of infections and cancers.
By August 18, A.LD.S. had been diagnosed in 24,011 people in the United States and claimed 13,272 lives, said the Federal Centre for Disease Control, in Atlanta.
A.I.D.S. is most often transmitted through sexual -contact. Other means of transmission include transfusions of infected blood or blood products, and the sharing of contaminated hypodermic needles or syringes by drug abusers. It also can be passed from mother to child at or before birth.
Editor quits because of A.LD.S.
Press, 4 September 1986, Page 9
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