The Nation - News from Aug. 15, 1989

Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan said he fears Americans are growing hardened to the AIDS epidemic and warned that more must be done to alleviate the crisis. In a speech in Washington to a national conference on AIDS in racial and ethnic groups, Sullivan said: “Our first order of business must be to make each and every American take notice of this problem. Denial is an avenue to the spread of the disease.” He noted that AIDS has been diagnosed in more than 100,000 people since the disease was first reported in 1981--and that number is expected to more than triple during the next three years.