The Nation - News from Feb. 8, 1987

AIDS patients and their families called for understanding and personal contact with those who have the fatal disease, in the second day of an “AIDS in the Heartland Conference” in Indianapolis. “Whatever you do, please don’t isolate us,” Ryan White, 15, told the audience of about 900 people. Ryan, a hemophiliac who got AIDS from tainted blood products, attracted national attention when he was barred from school in Kokomo, Ind. He won the right to return to school in a court battle. The conference, sponsored by the Indiana State Board of Health, drew professionals and laymen from at least seven states to discuss medical and legal aspects of the disease.