Iowa Governor Says Keep Up Fight Against AIDS

While a handful of deaths caused by anthrax has captured the nation's attention, Iowa must not forget that it has another deadly disease -- HIV/AIDS -- that more than 1,000 Iowans are living with each day, Gov. Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. "The fact that we have these tough issues to face doesn't mean that the issues that were here in this country before Sept. 11 need to be pushed aside," Vilsack told about 220 participants at the state's 4th annual HIV/AIDS Conference in Des Moines.

"It will do no good for us to deal with the national threat of anthrax if we do not also deal with the international threat of AIDS," Vilsack said. As of Sept. 30, Iowa had 1,025 people with HIV/AIDS. This is the first time the state topped the 1,000 mark since it began tracking the disease in the 1980s. Randy Mayer, the state's HIV/AIDS surveillance coordinator, said a larger pool of people are living with the virus because better treatment has reduced the number dying. Iowa had 39 AIDS deaths in 1990 and 105 in 1995. That number dropped to 27 last year. In 2000, 70 percent of Iowans learned of their HIV infection within six months of being diagnosed with AIDS, and 58 percent received both diagnoses at the same time. Vilsack urged Iowans to continue their fight against the deadly disease, despite the difficult time we are going through as a nation.

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