Crucial Voice in the AIDS Crisis

As of April, acquired immune deficiency syndrome had been diagnosed in nearly 290,000 Americans. Of that number, more than 63% had died, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those statistics provide the backdrop for President Clinton’s choice of Kristine M. Gebbie as the nation’s first AIDS policy chief.

Gebbie brings impressive credentials to the appointment. She has been the state health chief in both Oregon and Washington and is considered an expert in epidemiology.

Gebbie was also the head of the AIDS task force for the Assn. of State and Territorial Health Officials. She now chairs the CDC’s AIDS advisory committee, which is charged with reviewing all of the center’s AIDS programs.

Gebbie “has a cleareyed understanding of the AIDS epidemic as a health professional, as a state administrator and as a federal adviser,” says Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles). Adds Leonard Bloom, chief executive officer of AIDS Project Los Angeles, “She is out front on all of the issues.”

Gebbie’s job will be to coordinate the activities of the federal agencies that deal with the AIDS crisis. But an equally important task would be to use the office as a bully pulpit to spread information and combat unfounded fears about the disease and how it is transmitted.

The need for that was illustrated here recently in the case of a Van Nuys man who was training at the Associated Technical College to become a paramedic.

The man found that he has the virus that causes AIDS and was dropped from the private school after he told officials there. Yet Los Angeles County, which runs the paramedic program, does not bar anyone with the AIDS virus from being certified as a paramedic.

This is just one example of why an AIDS “czar” is needed. When Surgeon General Antonia C. Novello, and her predecessor, C. Everett Koop, spoke out about AIDS, they did so with the weight of one of the most visible and highly respected positions in the federal government. President Clinton must now give Gebbie the same assurance that she will speak with the full authority and power of the office of the nation’s chief executive.