Last Words From AIDS Commission : Panel goes out with somber parting warning

In its final report to the nation last week, the National Commission on AIDS sounded familiarly somber warnings to an American public still reluctant to confront an ever-growing global tragedy. But the commission has well earned the right to be listened to closely. And it reserved its most urgent and pointedly critical message, justifiably, for the nation’s political, business and religious leaders.

Thus far, acquired immune deficiency syndrome has infected nearly 290,000 Americans, claimed 179,748 lives and promises to cut short hundreds of thousands more. AIDS, which continues to elude a medical cure, is now the leading killer of men 25 to 44 years old in five states and 64 cities.

THE STILL-LINGERING RETICENCE: Yet after 12 years, two national-level commissions and dozens of reports and recommendations, the panel rightly noted that “leaders at all levels” have shown an “appalling” inability to discuss AIDS openly and have responded “woefully” to the epidemic.

Such reticence is in sharp contrast to the frank and honest language of the reports issued by the National Commission on AIDS. Created by Congress as part of omnibus AIDS legislation in 1989, the 15-member, bipartisan commission has worked tirelessly to advise Capitol Hill and the White House on how to formulate social and health policies that would help the nation to better deal with the spreading epidemic.

The panel has issued 15 reports examining complex and controversial subjects including AIDS discrimination in housing and the workplace, racial inequality and its effect on combatting HIV in minority communities, the need for needle exchange and drug treatment programs to stop the spread of HIV among addicts and the need to expand school-based HIV prevention efforts targeting sexually active adolescents.

THE STILL UNMET NEED FOR A PLAN: The AIDS commission has repeatedly called for the federal government to design a comprehensive national strategy for prevention, care and research to fight the virus.

That’s the next step for the Clinton Administration. It has increased the national AIDS funding by 28% in 1994 and last week named a top epidemiologist, Kristine Gebbie, to be the government’s AIDS coordinator.

While that’s encouraging it doesn’t substitute for a collective willingness for a top-to-bottom effort to confront the disease. It would indeed be a shame if the wisdom gained by four years of solid, thoughtful and compelling work by the commission is ignored. In the battle against AIDS, each moment lost is a tragic missed opportunity.