Legislators —

hear plea
on AIDS

DALLAS MES HERALD
USS. official requests
help on deadly illness

by Linda Fibich WAR 2 7 1967
TIMCS HERALD AUSTIN BUREAU

AUSTIN — U.S. Surgeon Gen-
cral C. Everett Koop put the battle
against AIDS before the Texas
Legislature on Thursday, pleading
with lawmakers to accept their
part in addressing the “grave
threat to our national health and
well-being.”

“You have only begun what ap-
j-eurs to be a long and fearful jour-
ney.” Koop said to a joint session
of the Senate and House. “All
signs point to this discase being a
burden to us for the rest of the
century.”

Kvop's appearance was his sec-
ond ever before a state legislature.
He called on the assembly to par-
ticipate in “a national dialogue” to
solve what he called the most
pressing problems: paying research
and patient-care costs that soon
“will be astronomical” and remov-
ing the full burden of patient care
from the country's hospitals.

Ii a news conference later, he
backed away from criticizing Tex-
as’ fulure so far to commit state
tax dollars to AIDS programs.

 

“Money alune ix not going to solve

the problem,” he said. “You have
u. have ideas. But most of all, you
luve to have cvalitions that are
willing to work together and get
something accomplished.”

Koop tvacted strongly to a sug-
gestion by Rep. Brad Wright, R-
Houston and chairman of the
House Committee on Public
Health, that since the spread of
AIDS has been largely through ac-
tivities that are illegal under state
kw, AIDS victims should bear
seme of their own burden,

“As a public health officer, as a
physician, as someone who has
practiced the Hippocratic oath, for
50 years, I believe that when peo-
ple are sick we have to take care
of them,” he said.

Koop normally makes public ap-
Peurances in the military dress of
the U.S. Public Health Service, but
Thursday was in a navy blazer,
gray slacks and red bow tie. He
apulogized to legislators, saying
that “through the kind offices" of
itt) airline, his uniform was in
Memphis.

in a 20-minute speech that re-
lieved the grimness of his
with occasional humor, Koop reit-
crited the statistics, the projections
and the agenda.

To date, the nation has seen.
33.1100 cases of AIDS, or acquired
immune deficiency syndrome, a
viral disorder that destroys the
body's ability to fight discase.
More than half already have re-
sulted in deaths, and the remain-
der almost certainly will have the
same outcome, he said. In Texas,
the case total has been just over
2.100 and the death rate nearly
two-thirds.

“We anticipate a cumulative to-
tal nationally of more than a quar-
ter af a million reported cases by
1991,” he warned. “Your own state
vpidemiologists predict that some
16.000 will be Texans.”