On Thursday at the US Conference on AIDS in Anaheim, Calif., White House Office of National AIDS Policy Director Dr. Joseph O'Neill was booed and jeered as he spoke of President Bush's stance on AIDS prevention programs. The national gathering of doctors, social workers, patients and advocates seemed discouraged to hear O'Neill discuss Bush's policies in support of abstinence education and against federal funding for needle exchange programs.

"I know there are concerns in this room about the administration's policies, or what our policies are imagined to be," said O'Neill, who began treating AIDS patients as a San Francisco internist in 1982. "We have to try to bring more voices to the table. Abstinence is one of those voices," he said. "We have not made a dent in the annual number of new infections in years. And we cannot afford to close our ears to any ideas."

Local AIDS health care workers criticized Bush's policies as shortsighted and potentially dangerous. O'Neill said Bush's stance does not exclude safe sex education. But Dan Gleason, executive director of the AIDS Services Foundation, Orange County, said programs heavy in abstinence education have failed to ensure that young people use protection when they do become sexually active. "It's not an enlightened perspective," Gleason said. "It's a perspective that doesn't take good solid health education into account."

AIDS health care providers are also concerned that the administration is not committed to increasing funding for prevention programs. Prevention efforts in Orange County have been particularly difficult in Latino and African-American communities, Gleason said.

O'Neill received the biggest jeers when he discussed the administration's lack of support for federal dollars for needle exchange programs. "When they talk about not wanting to fund needle exchange programs, the government is not really thinking about future generations," said Neil Willenson, founder and CEO of Camp Heartland, a national summer camp program for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Back to other CDC news for September 20, 2002

Previous Updates | Search the CDC archive