Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990 TAG: 9004250608
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The restrictions are preventing communities from targeting effective messages on how the AIDS virus is spread and what people can do to protect against it, such as using condoms and cleaning intravenous needles, the panel said Tuesday.
"Our only weapon is education," said June Osborn, commission chairwoman. "To put some artificial limits on that is like declaring you're only going to use a certain caliber of weapon . . . to fight a war."
The recommendation to remove these restrictions was one of five made by the commission in its second report to President Bush.
The panel also urged Bush to coordinate the federal government's response to the epidemic, to support legislation to provide $600 million in federal funds to areas hit hard by the disease and to pump federal dollars into housing for people with AIDS.
In addition, commissioners sought House support for an anti-discrimination bill that has been passed by the Senate and endorsed by Bush.
Because AIDS is transmitted chiefly through sexual intercourse with an infected person and by sharing needles with an infected IV-drug user, the content of government-funded messages about spread of the disease has been a subject of sensitivity.
An example of content-restrictions can be found in the Centers for Disease Control's proposed revisions of regulations on AIDS-related education materials produced with CDC funds.
One provision requires that this material not contain "terms, descriptions or displays which will be offensive to a majority of the intended audience or to a majority of persons outside the intended audience."
Another provision of that regulation says federally funded educational programs and materials "shall not be designed to promote or encourage, directly, intravenous drug abuse or sexual activity, homosexual or heterosexual."
Commission member Diane Ahrens, who directed a working group on government responsibilities and is a county commissioner in St. Paul, Minn., said the restrictions make it difficult for communities to target those most at risk of getting AIDS.
"There's a feeling that it's inappropriate for Washington or Atlanta [CDC headquarters] to tell folks in the South Bronx or Boise [Idaho] how they should direct their educational programs," she said. "What is appropriate for the South Bronx may not be appropriate for Boise.
"We're talking about a deadly disease here," she said. "You have to talk about using bleach [to disinfect needles] if they are abusing drugs . . . you need to talk about use of condoms, and that may not be acceptable to some communities, but you have to be relevant to the community you're trying to reach."
by CNB