AIDS OFFICIAL BACKS NEEDLE EXCHANGE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Making a strong statement in favor of needle exchange
programs, President Clinton' s AIDS adviser said 33 Americans contract the
HIV virus through drug injections every day.

" These are not numbers but real lives, " Sandra Thurman said Wednesday in
a speech to the National AIDS UPDATE Conference.

" I have cradled them in my arms, often in their last moments. I am haunted
by the responsibility to use my position to do everything I can to stop
this carnage."

A congressional moratorium on federal funding for local needle exchange
programs expires at the end of March.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala then could order release
of funds to communities that have programs exchanging clean needles for
contaminated ones, a common source of the AIDS virus. Thurman has been
lobbying Shalala to support such programs.

Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House Office of National Drug Policy,
opposes the programs, contending they promote drug use. Shalala has
declined to recommend funding in the past, saying it needed more study.

Shalala' s office did not return a telephone call seeking reaction to
Thurman' s speech.

Thurman' s comments were welcomed Thursday by Daniel Zingale of the
advocacy group AIDS Action. The speech " sends a signal that the time is
now to let locals get the dirty needles off the street, " he said. " It' s
the strongest signal we' ve seen."

Last week, Clinton' s Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS unanimously
expressed no confidence in the administration' s commitment to reducing the
spread of the disease. The council said the refusal to support needle
exchanges " threatens the public health and directly contradicts current
scientific evidence."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday she would call on Shalala to
lift the funding ban after March 31.

" The findings are clear, " she said. " The only thing standing in the way
is politics."