ORANGE COUNTY ‘87: a Look Ahead : MEDICINE : AIDS Concerns Outline Agenda for Public Health

The AIDS epidemic is expected to dominate Orange County’s medical concerns in 1987 as public health officials plan to form a new advisory panel and hire a coordinator to oversee the battle against the deadly disease.

In 1985 there were 104 new cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in Orange County; in 1986, there had been 117 new cases by the end of November, according to county officials, who expect at least another 117 new cases in 1987. At the end of 1986 there were 132 people with AIDS living in the county.

A new education program will focus on intravenous drug users in an attempt to prevent widespread transmission of the disease to the general public, and Orange County Public Health Officer L. Rex Ehling said all businesses, schools and other institutions should begin or intensify AIDS education programs in 1987.

“The time is right for institutions across the board to develop or review their policies,” Ehling said. “People avoid addressing it up front. As a result . . . executives and policy-makers don’t know enough about it. Fear of the unknown, when it comes to this, is destructive. The answer to that is education.”

At UCI Medical Center, 1987 will see about $4 million spent on construction and renovation, as the teaching hospital pursues new patients and continues its journey out of debt. The medical center, once owned by the county to treat the poor, finished its last fiscal year in the black; a year earlier it had been nearly $10 million in debt.