AIDS Action Hotwire!

AIDS Wars: No Phantom, Just Menace

"This summer, a new generation of young people will learn more about the dangers of the dark side of the Force than about the dangers of HIV and AIDS. Young people who think that AIDS is over need to learn that the AIDS wars are no phantom, just menace."

-- AIDS Action Executive Director Daniel Zingale

Many of today's young people may see the new Star Wars movie dozens of times yet not spend any time learning how to protect themselves from HIV, one of the most dangerous health threats to today's young people. Half of the 40,000 new HIV infections in America every year are among people under 25 and new evidence points to an increase in unsafe sex among young people, many of whom are misperceiving new life-prolonging AIDS treatments as a cure.

A media campaign with a fraction of the hype surrounding the mythical Star Wars universe could help undo the myths many young people have about the current state of the AIDS epidemic. AIDS Action has been advocating for reinvigorated youth prevention marketing through our ten-point Virtual Vaccine plan that is designed to treat prevention like the vaccine our nation desperately craves. Among the Virtual Vaccine initiatives are more advertising, improved testing and an end to flat federal prevention funding.

One More Infection Is One Too Many AIDS

Action strongly endorsed a new bill introduced in the House last week that would require the use of safe needlesticks in the health care workplace. Although HIV transmission from accidental needlestick injuries is extremely rare, better protective technologies could help to eliminate the risk of HIV in the medical setting.

"This bill could help make HIV transmission among health workers go from rare to extinct..." said AIDS Action Executive Director Daniel Zingale in the Kaiser HIV/AIDS Daily Report (5/24/99). "Fortunately, HIV is an extremely difficult virus to transmit. ... If passed, the Roukema-Stark bill will help make it nearly impossible."

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, there have been less than 150 possible or documented occupationally acquired HIV infections among health care workers in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that accidental exposure to an HIV-tainted needle carries an infection risk of about 5 in 1,000. In addition, nearly 12,000 health care workers contract occupationally related hepatitis B infections every year.

Clinton OKs Marijuana Research

The Clinton Administration's May 21st decision to ease marijuana availability for research was a small step toward science over politics. But while we continue research into the medical benefits of marijuana, AIDS Action wants the federal government as well as state and local jurisdictions to act immediately and make smoked marijuana available to those who need it. Indeed, a recent study by the NIH's Institute of Medicine found marijuana to be effective in reducing disease and treatment symptoms. For the sake of those undergoing some of the worst imaginable human suffering, smoked marijuana should be made available immediately under secure distribution.

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