THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1993 Abd

flos Angeles Times

Aim AIDS Prevention at Youth, Panel Advises

s Health: Facts need to
oe explained to
teen-agers, who are
increasingly at risk, the
report says. Few
employers have HIV
programs, it adds.

By MARLENE CIMONS
TIMES STAFF WRITER

ASHINGTON—The Na-

tional Commission on
AIDS, warning that the epidemic
“threatens a new generation of
Americans,” called Wednesday
for greatly expanded prevention
programs for the nation’s youth,
saying that educational efforts
must directly address issues of
sexuality and abstinence, condom
use and availability.

“We will never break the back
of the epidemic without a tough,
explicit, culturally appropriate
delivery of facts to our teen-
agers,” Dr. David E. Rogers, vice
chairman of the 15-member com-
mission, said in a statement ac-
companying the commission's re-
port. “We have let issues of taste

 

and morality interfere with the

delivery of potentially life-saving
information to young people.”

- In a second report, also re-
leased Wednesday, the commis-

sion urged that the country’s”

workplaces “move beyond deni-
al” to develop in-house AIDS
policies and education programs.
“Ags more and more companies
have employees with HIV dis-
ease, employers must put in place
policies for HIV-infected workers
that provide for them to remain
productively employed, without
discrimination, for as long as
possible,” the panel said. “At too
many work sites managers and
employees are in states of denial,
complacency or ignorance.”

Tt bipartisan commission,
which was created to advise
Congress and the White House on
combatting the epidemic, recom-
mended that President Clinton
set an example by ordering a
federal employee HIV education
program, starting with the White
House staff.

In its report on AIDS in adoles-
cents, the commission said that

1,267 cases of AIDS nationwide —

among teen-agers ages 13 to 19
had been reported as of March.

The number of cases among
20- to 29-year-olds, however,
actually is of greater significance,
since AIDS can take 10 or more
years after infection to develop.
‘As of March, 10,949 cases of the
disease had been reported among
20- to 24-year olds, and 44,171
among 25- to 29-year-olds, the
panel said. These individuals rep-
resent about 20% of the nation’s
total caseload “and were prob-
ably infected as teen-agers,” the
report said.

The commission reiterated a

previous recommendation that
the President develop a major
prevention initiative, including

special programs directed at.

youth. Such services should pay
particular attention to young
people in high-risk situations,
such as runaways, substance
abusers, gays and school drop-
outs, the report said. /
The panel also urged Congress
to approve legislation creating
more comprehensive services
aimed at young people and said
that more behavioral research is
needed on teen-agers in an effort
to develop new and more effec-
tive strategies.
The panel also called on the
entertainment industry and other

media to develop ways to convey
positive messages to adolescents
on AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases and drug-
use risk reduction, saying that the
media “are pervasive, lacing daily
living with contradictory mes-
sages about sexuality, alcohol and
other drug use and violence. . . .
Story lines often portray the
kinds of behaviors that are di-
rectly counter to those that HIV
educators attempt to reinforce.”

he commission also called for
networks to lift the ban
against condom advertising, say -
ing that such commercials would
be a “potentially valuable path
toward normalization and accept-

ance of condoms, condom use and |

responsible sexual behavior.”

In its workplace report, the
commission said that only about
one-fourth of the nation’s largest
private sector employers have
AIDS policies and programs and
that the number of such pro-
grams in smaller businesses,
which provide the majority of
employment in the United States,
is “minuscule.”

The commission cited a recent
opinion poll conducted by the
National Leadership Coalition on

AIDS, an organization that spe-
cializes in’ business and labor
AIDS policy issues, which showed
that, although 75% of workers
surveyed believe their employers
should provide AIDS education,
only 28% reported receiving any.

“Often, when we think of the
great need for AIDS education,
we think of teens and the
schools,” said Larry Kessler, a
commission member and director
of AIDS Action Council in Boston,
the largest AIDS service organi-
zation in New England.

“But in the workplace, parents
of these teens often have co-

- workers with AIDS or HIV,” he

continued. “So the need is just as
great for education and compas-
sion to make the workplace an
area where everyone pulls to-
gether and people with AIDS
continue to enjoy their productive
days in peace and safety.”

Among other things, the com-
mission recommended that the
President establish a White
House AIDS education program
and direct his Cabinet secretaries
to implement similar programs in
their departments. It said that the
Small Business Administration

_ should designate an AIDS coordi-

nator to assist small businesses.