A.I.D.S. outlook worse

Press, 2 April 1988, Page 20

A.I.D.S. outlook worse

I ] i I From

JOHN N. HUTCHISON

;in San Francisco j j |

THERE is! a little good news here about A11.D.5., but the bad' news is terrible. j ( ! ' j The city’s experts’say that the rate at; which H.I.V. {is spreading has slowed. That is (the meagre ’good news. H.I.V. is the human 1 immunodeficiency virus that produces the unyielding A.i.D.S.;ifor which there is as yet ho measure that (will prevent death. { j ■ ; The badjnews is that by, 1993, San Francisco will] (have ] diagnosed 17,022 1 of its ( citizens as i having contracted the disease — four times the total] to date. (The figures come from! the city’s health department, nationally recognized for its experience ( and expertise with the disease. ; As many {as 6288] San Francis-

' • ■' - ■ ! r ' can victims will be living {with A.LD.S. in 1993, (the department believes. The annual costs of caring for that; many (A.LD.S. patients in this! city] of about 800,000 inhabitants is almost incomprehensible. The estimate SUS 376 million (SNZSBO million), about one-third {of the i present budget for a year, j { ■ The department’s prognosis is that more people infected) with H.I.V. will eventually {get AII.D.S. than was first believed. It also postulates that (by 1993, people with A.LD.S. will live for an average of 22 (months, whereas the average now (is 15 mopths. The A.LD.S. crisis 'plagues San Francisco at the same time that the city is severely I stressed by

drug abuse,, and the ; two problems intersect.; Intravenous drug users, A.I.b.S. and H.I.V!. carriers among them, transmit 1 the virus through the sharing of|contami- I nated needles, rind A.LD.S is now ; travelling faster by that route 1 than in | the ] (gay community, , authorities say! { { The (San (j Francisco “Ex-1 aminer,” in an editorial com-j menting on the drug arid A.LD.S.’ epidemics, noted that the spread of .the disease! is reported to have, almost (halted among homosexuals in the San Francisco Bay area, anjd has (moderated among' intravenous drug users, apparently through { aggressive educational efforts.) But the growth; however slowed, is still rising.