AIDS Program Faulted for Foul-Ups

WASHINGTON — The AIDS education program conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control has been marred by delays in mass mailings and by limited broadcasts of public service ads, a congressional report said today.

The report from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also said callers may find it difficult to get through to an AIDS telephone hot line. The GAO said that even though the CDC’s AIDS education budget increased from about $17 million in fiscal 1985 to nearly $210 million in 1988, “its efforts to focus national attention on AIDS prevention were impaired by the slow implementation of key activities aimed at the general public.”