Plea for Drug Programs Cites Child AIDS

Emphasizing that the majority of AIDS cases in children occur among the off-spring of intravenous drug users, participants at a meeting on pediatric AIDS called on Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Wednesday to “do everything possible to expand treatment and prevention programs dealing with drug abuse.”

Currently, AIDS among children is “very strongly linked to inner-city, disadvantaged, minority populations,” said Dr. Stephen Joseph, commissioner of health for New York City. Thus far, there have been 475 children under the age of 13 who have contracted AIDS. Of those, 303 have died. Although the Public Health Service has projected 3,000 pediatric AIDS cases by 1991, some researchers have estimated that as many as 10,000 children may be afflicted with AIDS, or infected with the virus, by then.

The three-day meeting, initiated by Koop and held at Children’s Hospital here--where Koop spent more than three decades as a pediatric surgeon--brought together approximately 200 public health officials, researchers, community leaders, clergy, and health care professionals.

Koop asked the meeting to recommend ways to attack both the medical and social problems associated with AIDS in children, but acknowledged that the office of surgeon general has no authority to implement any of the recommendations.

‘I Am a Catalyst’

“I do not have either power or money,” Koop told the group. “I am a catalyst. My power is that of moral suasion.”

Koop in recent months has crusaded for AIDS sex education in schools, a position attacked by some conservatives but endorsed by President Reagan last week in his first major public statement on AIDS.

President and First Lady Nancy Reagan have campaigned vigorously against drug abuse, but have not included the dangers of AIDS in their anti-drug messages.

While some children have contracted the disease through contaminated blood transfusions and other blood products, most were infected during pregnancy by their infected mothers, many of whom are intravenous drug users or the sexual partners of intravenous drug users. The sharing of contaminated hypodermic needles is a major route of transmission of the AIDS virus.

Koop has urged that any woman considering pregnancy voluntarily undergo the AIDS antibody test, which determines whether an individual has been exposed to the AIDS virus.

‘Almost Certain Death’

“Current information suggests that up to 65% of babies born to infected mothers will contract the disease,” Koop said. “The outlook for these children is almost certain death.”

In other recommendations, the experts urged that the federal government support “a wide continuum of services” to all communities struggling with the care of AIDS children, including expanding clinical studies of experimental AIDS drugs to include more children.

The group also endorsed legislation introduced by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Ted Weiss (D-N.Y.) that would waive the 24-month waiting period for Medicare eligibility in the case of an individual with AIDS.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, destroys the immune system, leaving the individual powerless against certain opportunistic infections and rare cancers. The virus can also invade the central nervous system.