Friday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
AIDS funding
must be stepped up
Today, the world will cele
brate the 13th annual World
AIDS Day. OK, maybe cele
brate isn’t the right word.
The world will observe this recogni
tion of the AIDS epidemic, with a fo
cus on sub-Saharan Africa. Current
figures from UNAID, the United Na
tion’s AIDS organization, show that
the world has added more than 5 mil
lion new AIDS cases this year. UN
AID estimates that 36.1 million
adults and children worldwide are
currently living with HIV and AIDS.
Of those infected, 25.3 million are in
sub-Saharan Africa, 5.8 million are in
South and Southeast Asia, and 1.4
million are in Latin America. This
truly a worldwide problem, and the
world needs to spend more time and
energy on prevention, education and
research for a cure.
In 1981, the disease now known as
AIDS was identified in the United
States. That year, the Centers for Dis
ease control spent only $1 million on
research, while spending millions
more on lesser threats, such as Le
gionnaire’s Disease. Thanks largely to
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Con
gress began more aggressive funding,
despite President Reagan’s staunch
opposition. In 1985, there were near
ly 13,000 cases of AIDS in the United
States.
Presidents Reagan and Bush fought
for 12 years against Congress’ efforts
to increase funding for AIDS re
search, education and care. If their
intent was to make the epidemic
worse, they succeeded. Today, there
are more than 400,000 people living
with AIDS or HIV, and more than
425,000 have died from the disease
since 1981. Government assistance
has grown along with infections: The
Kaiser Family Foundation estimates
the federal government spent $9.7
billion in 1999 on a wide variety of
HIV/AIDS programs.
So what will a new president bring
to the AIDS fight? The picture is un
clear. If Texas Gov. George W. Bush is
elected, many executive AIDS pro
grams may be derailed. If Vice Presi
dent Al Gore is elected, new AIDS
funding will face a fight from the
Congress. AIDS funding has barely
been keeping up with the increasing
costs of administering health care
and doing research, and the situation
isn’t likely to dramatically change.
Additional funding for domestic
research and prevention isn’t going to
solve the problem, however. Atti
tudes in wealthier Western countries
about the disease need to change. In
travenous drug users continue to get
infected, and the fastest-growing de
mographic of new HIV infections is
heterosexual women. But AIDS still
carries the stigma of its early associa
tion with gay men. Even among that
demographic, infection rates are ris
ing after a decade of decline. Recent
studies have found that younger gay
men in America seem to think that
AIDS isn’t that large a threat. Perhaps
this is because of the advanced drug
“cocktail” therapies that allow the in
fected to live better, longer lives. But
people with AIDS still die premature
ly. There is no cure. Western coun
tries need to realize this and redouble
their efforts on research and preven
tion.
Eastern Europe and the former So
viet Union have an AIDS attitude
problem as well. Much like China a
few years ago, the public perception
is that no AIDS problem exists. The
threat isn’t discussed, and as a result
infections in the area have doubled
in the last year, adding more than
500,000 new AIDS cases, according
to the UNAID report. Most of these
are among IV drug users and sex
workers.
In developing nations, the situa
tion is substantially worse. In Africa,
the rate of new infections is finally
dropping — but this isn’t a good
thing. Reuters reports that so much of
the sexually active population is al
ready infected, there aren’t many
more people to become infected.
Nearly one in 10 African adults is in
fected with the disease. And in
Africa, treatment and infection are is
sues of race, class and gender. Med
ication is often only available to the
wealthy or the white in larger cities.
Small villages often don’t have the
medical infrastructure to distribute
medication, even if they could afford
it. Discussing AIDS is seen as a threat
to masculinity in many African coun
tries, and women are not often em
powered to control their own sexual
destiny.
To add to the difficulty in Africa,
the 13th International AIDS confer
ence in Durban, South Africa, this
summer ended up not focusing on
finding ways to get more internation
al assistance, but instead became an
argument about whether HIV causes
AIDS and whether sick people diag
nosed as having AIDS in Africa actu
ally have AIDS, or whether they sim
ply have other opportunistic
infections. These are certainly big
questions that the scientific commu
nity needs to investigate. But the
harsh reality is that Africans need
help now.
The world currently has 36 million
people infected with AIDS. That may
not seem like much compared to the
world population. But then, 13,000
infections in the United States in
1985 didn’t seem like much. The in
ternational community needs to use
World AIDS Day to re-energize and
refocus worldwide efforts to stop this
epidemic. The United States needs to
do its part as well. If we don’t, those
36 million will only be the tip of the
iceberg, and in 15 years we’ll all be
asking why we didn’t do more
earlier.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses can be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Criticism of Health Center's flu shot policy was ‘cheap shot’
Guest Commentary
Anne
Leavitt
-_i
Your editorial ( “Needed: A shot of good
judgment,” ODE, Nov. 29) about the Uni
versity Health Center’s management of flu
vaccine was both inaccurate and unfair.
Dr. Gerald Fleischli is charged by the University
with managing medical and health care resources,
including flu vaccines, to protect and promote the
health of currently enrolled students. As you
know, the distribution system for flu vaccines this
year has been unusually erratic and unpredictable.
Health care providers have had to decide on an al
most daily basis how best to distribute the dosages
of vaccines as they become available. Dr. Fleischli
has followed guidelines from the Communicable
Disease Center, recommendations from the Student
Health Advisory Council, and past practices in
seeking to make these doses available first to stu
dent members of our community whose health is
at risk, and, as supplies permit, to faculty and staff.
Student athletes are among the students whom
the University Health Center serves. Medical staff
at the center and at the Athletic Department have
regularly recommended that student athletes with
travel schedules be inoculated to reduce the health
risks of exposure to communicable diseases while
away from campus. This year, because of the un
predictable supply of vaccines, the number of dos
es available to athletes was reduced by three-quar
ters, from about 200 doses to only 50. The vaccine
was also offered to other students whose health
might be at risk, including students being treated
by the center for diabetes, asthma or other particu
lar medical conditions.
To date, student demand for flu vaccines has not
exceeded the supply available at the health center.
With the number of doses on hand anticipated to
increase, the health center has extended the vac
cine to healthy students and to healthy faculty and
staff. The center even anticipates having enough
doses on hand to hold special flu clinics on the
next two Saturdays.
You may be disappointed with Dr. Fleischli’s
medical judgment that some student athletes
should have flu protection while traveling on be
half of the University of Oregon, but that doesn’t
make his professional judgment “unethical.” That
was a cheap shot! I hope you will now get your
own flu shot and enjoy your holiday with protect
ed health.
Anne Leavitt is the associate vice president for student affairs
and dean of students at the University.
Letters to the editor
Popular-vote election has draw
backs
Abolishing the electoral system
may superficially appear an appro
priate remedy for a seemingly unfair
voting process, but I’m doubtful a
popular vote would be better.
Currently, presidential campaigns
concentrate on states with the most
electoral votes, and it makes sense.
Less time and money is spent to
•reach the most people. The smallest
.siates jusuaLly .eLcu^tgel.a campaign.
stop, but eliminating the states’ vote
won’t fix selective campaigning.
If we adopted a popular vote, what
would happen? Candidates would fo
cus on large cities rather than whole
states. Instead of Gore campaigning
throughout California, he would
probably hit only San Francisco and
Los Angeles (27 million people com
bined) and then move on. If he went
north, he might not even hit Portland
(2 million people) in favor of Seattle
(3.5 million people).
In a popular-vote election, candi
. dates might avoid the Northwest en
.LfrhTyttW.E^t'Ghdst'i^.Wp'rfe. popu
lous. New York City, Washington,
D.C., Chicago and Philadelphia offer
about 42 million people, and visits
are cheaper than flying west. The
Electoral College makes California a
“must have,” with Washington and
Oregon considered pivotal.
One thing worth supporting about
the popular vote is that minority
votes matter more than with the Elec
toral College. Lefties in Texas and the
Midwest won’t be heard because of
the majority. The same with Califor
nia and New England conservatives.
Voting by district within states might
be a fairer (but-not the best) way of
handling this discrepancy without
plummeting toward a big-city bias.
Jon House
anthropology
CORRECTION
In the Nov. 30 issue of the Emer
ald, the story “Alliance strives to
end indifference” should have read:
The Lane County Public Health
Department has created a display of
past World AIDS Day posters in the
Public Health Service Building,
located at 15 E. 8th Ave. in Eugene.
It will be open for public viewing
through Dec. 1
Campus
“Whys”
As theterm
comes to an
end, ponder
these timeless
questions:
Why can’t the
weather in Eugene
choose to be either
really cold or really
rainy, rather than
torture us with
both?
Why did Subway
abandon the “scoop
cut” for its bread,
instead reverting to
the “flat cut,” which
allows more food to
fall out?
Why doesn’t the
University focus as
much on students’
proficiency in de*
cencyand integrity
as it does on their
understanding of
diversity?
Why doesn't every
classroom on
campus have a
clock?
And, related,
Why do some pro
fessors think it’s OK
to keep teaching
and making assign
ments five minutes
past the end of
class?
Why is the Calculus
solutions manual,
which helps hun
dreds of students
learn, missing from
the Math Library?
Why isn't the presi
dential election
finished yet?
Why is our term
break nearly five
weeks long? Oh,
wait, forget that
one.
Why haven’t I fin
ished those last six
chapters?
And one related
“what,” to break
the rules,
What is the cumula
tive number of
unread chapters on
campus this term?