A CALL TO ACTION ISSUED ON AIDS AMONG ALAMEDA COUNTY BLACKS

Alameda County became the first in the nation Thursday to declare a medical
state of emergency over an epidemic of AIDS among African-Americans, who
accounted for half of all AIDS cases countywide last year.

The board of supervisors voted unanimously to sound the alarm after hearing
a report that the deadly disease strikes African-Americans in the county at
a rate five times higher than whites.

The declaration is expected to make it much easier for Alameda County to
garner private and government funds for AIDS prevention and treatment,
including a chunk of the $156 million that President Clinton set aside last
week to target AIDS among blacks and Latinos nationwide. The move could
also pave the way for a needle exchange program to stanch the spread of
AIDS through intravenous drug use. Without an emergency, needle exchanges
could be deemed illegal because they allow for illicit drug use.

The call to action was especially sobering on the heels of an optimistic
report this fall that the number of deaths from AIDS was going down
nationwide. Although the AIDS rate in Alameda County is going down for
black people along with others, African-Americans remain at the greatest
risk of getting the disease.

``When there is this disparity, there is discrimination, and I urge you to
take action swiftly,'' Arthur Chen, the county's director of public health,
told county supervisors. ``When it hits at five times the rate of other
groups, it sends an alarm for us, and clearly we're heading in that
direction.''

AIDS has become the leading killer of blacks in the county between ages 25
and 44, public health officers said Monday. Since 1986, more than
two-thirds of children under 13 diagnosed with AIDS have been black, even
though African-Americans make up just a fifth of Alameda County's population.

The disproportionate impact of AIDS among blacks in Alameda County reflects
a nationwide pattern. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S.
population, but accounted for 45 percent of all new AIDS cases nationwide
last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta.

But the problem is more pronounced in Alameda County simply because the
black population of 235,000 is higher -- the second largest in the state
behind Los Angeles.

Race-based declaration

Several other counties have declared medical emergencies over the incidence
of AIDS, including San Francisco, which then used the declaration to
justify a needle exchange program. But Alameda is the first specifically to
declare an emergency among African-Americans.

``What this state of emergency means to me is, I hope I can get my life
back together instead of using all my disability money just to pay rent,''
said Andre La Monte-Lee, 33, a black warehouseman who found out six years
ago he had the AIDS virus and later had to drop out of Pennsylvania State
University.

``Right now there's no funding available to help me until I'm half dead,''
he said. ``I can't work because some days I can't get up the stairs. What I
want is to go back to school. I know I can get my bachelor's degree, and I
know I could get a master's degree instead of just waiting and living on
disability.''

The disease seems to strike African-Americans more often because of poverty
and a lack of education about AIDS prevention, said officials and AIDS
activists. Many cited a taboo among blacks about discussing safe sex and
homosexuality, and said churches are reluctant to use their influence to
address AIDS.

``We have to reach out to everyone in that community, and hopefully this
will send them a message that we have to discuss the issues surrounding
AIDS prevention,'' Chen said. Drug injection is the second leading
transmitter of AIDS among blacks in Alameda County, after sexual contact.
About 79 percent of intravenous drug users with AIDS in Alameda County are
black, according to the report.

Needle injections appear to cause most of the cases among black women and
children, with the women apparently passing the virus to their children.

Chen said Thursday that he will try to get a needle exchange program under
way. AIDS activists also pleaded for a county-funded needle exchange
program. In Oakland, community-based groups are raising private funds to
distribute about a million clean needles to drug abusers each year with
money from a philanthropist, and thousands more in Berkeley.

``It seems like there is a little bit of a Trent Lott mentality in this
county that says you can't do this,'' said John Iversen, co-founder of a
Berkeley needle exchange program, referring to the conservative U.S.
senator. ``But you've got to do this.''

Board of supervisors President Keith Carson said he supports needle
exchange to prevent AIDS but needs to decide if it's the best use for
scarce funds.

The county now spends about $13 million for programs to prevent and treat
AIDS. About 63 percent of the funds already go to African-American
patients, which Chen said is not enough to field the impact of AIDS on the
black community.

Emergency funds

Under the Clinton initiative, about $50 million is set aside strictly for
``emergencies.''

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, a part of the Black Congressional Caucus that
urged the federal funding for AIDS prevention for blacks and Latinos, said
the declaration of emergency will send a message to the federal government.

``We are going to do everything we can to put an end to this epidemic in
our community,'' she said.


Checked-by: Pat Dolan