Tragic Delay

State health officials have been inanely slow in supplying low-income AIDS patients with the drug AZT, which has proved to be effective in delaying the progression of the disease. They have been so slow that California may lose the federal money that supports the program. The delays are inexcusable.

Last September federal health officials authorized the California Office of AIDS to spend $7.6 million to supply AZT to between 700 and 1,000 of the state’s living AIDS victims for up to a year. The AZT treatment costs $8,000 to $10,000 a year.

It obviously takes time to set in motion a program involving such a large sum of money. But half a year later, state records show that county health agencies have been able to spend only $38,000 of that money to provide AZT to about 40 patients, although the head of the program says that distribution has been speeded up since those reports were made.

But these aren’t patients who have time to wait. If California can’t gear up to use the money, other states will, and federal officials warn that they may shift California funds to states that will use them.

There are a variety of procedural reasons for the delays. Los Angeles County especially has lagged in paying for AZT treatment. Dr. Caswell Evans, assistant director of the county’s health-services program, said that the county has received so many grants involving AIDS that a backlog has developed in processing them for action by the Board of Supervisors. Thelma Frazier, head of the California AIDS office, says that part of the problem statewide stemmed from delays in signing contracts with county governments to distribute the money, but that now virtually all of the largest counties have signed. “I do think (the money) will be spent,” she said.

The federal government has itself moved too slowly and done too little to help in the battle against AIDS. It would be twice tragic if California compounded the problem by moving so slowly that the federal government snatched its money back.