National Mailing Readied for Candid AIDS Booklet

The federal government on Wednesday unveiled its long-awaited AIDS education pamphlet, which will be mailed to every household in America within the next eight weeks.

“This is a first in the history of our country--the first time the federal government has attempted to contact virtually every resident, directly by mail, regarding a public health crisis,” Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen said at a press conference.

He added: “This brochure cannot mince words--and it doesn’t. It discusses the behaviors that put people at risk, and it calls those behaviors by name, as it must if we are to give people the information they need to protect themselves.”

The eight-page booklet, which is expected to reach 107 million households by June 30, explains in simple but frank language exactly how the deadly disease is and is not transmitted.

“Who you are has nothing to do with whether you are in danger of being infected with the AIDS virus,” it warns. “What matters is what you do.

“There are two main ways you can get AIDS,” the brochure says. “First, you can become infected by having sex--oral, anal or vaginal--with someone who is infected with the AIDS virus. Second, you can be infected by sharing drug needles and syringes with an infected person. Babies of women who have been infected with the AIDS virus may be born with the infection because it can be transmitted from the mother to the baby before or during birth.”

The mailing was universally praised by gay rights groups, health officials and others.

“Everyone who reads this mailer will understand the disease better,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health. “And I hope this understanding will lead to urgency and compassion, and replace panic and fear.”

Faye Wattleton, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the mailing “will . . . play a vital role in helping (Americans) to understand and prevent this deadly disease. We are also pleased and relieved that this nation is finally acknowledging that the AIDS epidemic is a health issue, not a moral issue.”

Jeff Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said: “In addressing the issues of compassion and irrational fears of contagion, it’s an excellent document.”

‘Millions Will Be Comforted’

And Edward N. Brandt, chairman of the National Leadership Coalition of AIDS and assistant secretary for health during President Reagan’s first term, said: “Countless lives can be saved and millions of people will be comforted and reassured if the content of this pamphlet is understood and applied.”

The idea for a national mailing, which was mandated by Congress last December, was first broached in 1986 but was strongly resisted by White House officials who felt it was inappropriate for the federal government to send unsolicited material regarding sexual matters into American homes.

The government has also been criticized for taking too long to produce a national AIDS mailing. But U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who wrote a highly regarded report on AIDS in October, 1986, said: “I think the American public is far more ready for this type of mailing now than it would have been a year and a half ago.”

Koop, speaking at Wednesday’s press conference, said the government undertook the mailing “because the epidemic of misunderstanding about how AIDS is spread and how it is not spread seems, at times, as difficult to control as the epidemic itself.”

The government is printing 110 million English-language copies, with an additional 4 million to be printed in Spanish for distribution by mail in Puerto Rico and through extensive non-mail distribution to Spanish-speaking people in the 50 states, federal health officials said. The mailing is aimed at persons with at least a seventh-grade education.

Koop Offers Message

A photograph of Koop appears on the pamphlet’s cover with a message that says in part: “Some of the issues involved in this brochure may not be things you are used to discussing openly. I can easily understand that. But now you must discuss them. . . . Read this brochure and talk about it with those you love.”

He said studies have indicated “that there are still millions of Americans who believe you can get AIDS from mosquitoes, blood donations for transfusion, toilet seats and sitting next to a child in school.” The brochure, he said, “is designed to provide facts, to quiet fears and, by doing these things, to lessen discrimination against those who have AIDS or carry the virus.”

The booklet flatly states that “you won’t get the AIDS virus through everyday contact” or from a mosquito bite or exposure to saliva, sweat, tears, urine or a bowel movement. Nor can it be contracted, the mailing says, from a kiss or from “clothes, a telephone, or from a toilet seat.”

It was the first time that federal health officials have departed from their usual qualifications, such as, “studies indicate . . . “ or “there is no evidence to indicate that. . . . “

“We’ve now had seven--going on eight--years’ experience with this disease, and we’ve investigated over 60,000 cases,” said Dr. James O. Mason, director of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. “We felt the time had come when we could make clear, simple authoritative statements on how AIDS is and is not transmitted.”

Urges Compassion

The booklet also urges compassion for AIDS patients. “No one will require more support and more love than your friend with AIDS,” it asserts. “Feel free to offer what you can, without fear of becoming infected.”

Mason acknowledged that there were shortcomings to the mailing. It will not reach everyone it should, he said--such as the homeless, those who cannot read and those who read languages other than English or Spanish.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, destroys the body’s immune system, leaving it powerless against certain cancers and otherwise rare infections. It can also invade the central nervous system, causing severe neurological disorders. In this country, AIDS has primarily afflicted homosexual and bisexual men, intravenous drug users and their sexual partners. As of Monday, a total of 60,852 Americans had contracted AIDS, of whom 34,088 had died.