B6 . MONDAY. DECEMBER |1. 1989 DAVID LAVENTHOL, Publisher and Chief Execunve Officer RICHARD T. SCHLOSBERG IIL, President and Chief Operanng Officer SHELBY COFFEY II, Editor and Executive Vice President DONALD H. CLARK, Executve Vice President, Marketing Sos Angeles Times A Times Mirror Newspaper JAMES D. BOSWELL, Vice President, Employee and Public Relations Publishers ST JEFFREY S. HALL, Vice President — LAWRENCE M. HIGBY, Vice President HARRISON GRAY OTIS, 1882-1917 WILLIAM A. NIESE. Vice President and General Counsel HARRY CHANDLER, 1917-1944 NORMAN CHANDLER, /944-1950 ores om aw GEORGE J. COTLIAR, Managing Editor TOM JOHNSON, {980-1989 THOMAS PLATE, Editor of the Editorial Pages Chairman, 1989 FRANK DEL OLMO, Deputy Editor of the Editorial Pages Marching Orders on AIDS In an emergency letter to the White House, the National Commission on Acquired Immune Defi- ciency Syndrome (AIDS) has opened a campaign to persuade American leaders “to match rhetoric with action” in containing the dreadful epidemic. The report is a most timely nudge for President Bush to provide national leadership on this critical problem. “There is a dangerous, perhaps even growing, complacency in our country toward an epidemic that many people want to believe is over,” commussioners found. “Far from over, the epidem- ic 1s reaching crisis proportions among the young, the poor, women and many minonty communities. In fact, the 1990s will be much worse that the 1980s.” Two urgent tasks for President Bush emerge from the report: Creating a national plan for responding to the epidemic and moving quickly to stem the alarming spread among intravenous drug users of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. “There 1s no national plan for helping an already faltering health care system deal with the impact of the HIV epidemic,” according to the report. And the search for solutions has been made no easier by the fact that the President's National Drug Control Strategy virtually ignores the rapid spread of HIV infection among intravenous drug users. Commis- sioners expressed understandable “surprise and disappointment” regarding those omissions. The report, while directed to President Bush, makes clear that an effective campaign against AIDS will require the cooperation and work of leaders at all levels of government and within the private sector. Furthermore, the report realisti- cally acknowledges that “the heaith care system itself requires urgent attention.” AIDS is not the cause of the unraveling of health services and, at worst, will not itself take more than about 4% of health-care funding. But no region is without problems as the epidemic spreads throughout the nation. Some areas, notably New York City, already are so heavily impacted that the health- care system itself is imperiled. For us, there are two contrasting conclusions to be drawn from the report: —The report underscores once again that there is a consensus among the professionals about what needs to be done. Like the report prepared 18 months ago by the Presidential Commission head- ed by Adm. James D. Watkins, this report identifies key areas of action and the increased funding necessary if the essential programs are to be implemented. —But the report also reflects the inertia of too many leaders in implementing these clear and urgent recommendations. That is particularly evident regarding the call for mobilizing an adequate national drug rehabilitation program, something the Watkins panel cited as essential even before it wrote its final report in June of 1988. Education and on-demand drug rehabilitation are the only known means to respond to this growing problem which “imperils not only the drug users but aiso their sexual partners and children.” No report was due from the commission until August, but members feit the need for “extraordi- nary measures” required an earlier response from them, a quicker mobilization of the nation. We agree. And we look now to President Bush, with confidence encouraged by his past statements on the epidemic, for vigorous leadership.