Rock Hudson

The death of Rock Hudson ends the actor’s struggle against acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a fight that was punctuated last July by his announcement that he had the disease, which mainly afflicts male homosexuals.

At a time when many obituaries of AIDS victims hide the cause of death, Hudson’s announcement was a brave and important act that has heightened public awareness of the disease and made it less possible for people to dismiss it as a plague that affects somebody else. President Reagan’s phone call to Hudson in a Paris hospital was a significant act on the public consciousness.

“I am not happy that I am sick,” Hudson said in a message to the AIDS fund-raising gala here two weeks ago, “but if that is helping others, I can at least know that my own misfortune has had some positive worth.”

No one could have put it better. Hudson recognized that as the most famous of the more than 13,000 AIDS victims so far, he could do something to help end this terrible disease. In addition, he donated $250,000 last week to a new national foundation to seek a cure for AIDS. Life is full of misfortunes. The latest is that he did not live to benefit from the cure that must someday come.