Monday, September 9, 1985
Pago 2
Daily Nebraskan
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NEW YORK (Reuter) Year of
AIDS is spreading around the world
more rapidly than the disease itself
as headlines in a hundred languages
warn of a new "Black Death" and
officials gear for epidemics of an
illness for which there is no cure.
A Reuter survey of officials in capi
tal cities worldwide finds wide dis
parity in how nations are coping.
Some countries, including China, are
t:iking such precautionary measures
i& banning blood imports, while oth
ers refuse to admit that the disease
exists.
Reasons for shunning discussion of
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syn
drome range from ideology, as in Iran
and the Soviet Union, to fear of harm
ing tourism, as in Kenya.
But nowhere is fear more rampant
than in the United States, which has
most of the world's 14,000 known
cases of the deadly viral disease.
Expressions of that fear are reported
daily.
Health workers talk of a panic that
has isolated victims and broken up
families, creating fears not only in
the groups at greatest risk of con
tracting the disease homosexuals
and intravenous drug users but in
the population at large.
Medical experts call AIDS the
"Black Death" of the 20th century,
even though unlike the bubonic
plague, it is not an airborne disease
but one doctors believe is relatively
difficult to transmit.
Heterosexuals, who account for
only 1 percent of AIDS victims in the
United States, talk of changing their
lifestyles and increasingly avoid con
tact with homosexual men, who make
up 73 percent of all U.S. cases.
Statistics fuel the fear. AIDS has
become the biggest single killer of
unmarried men aged between age 25
and 44 in San Francisco and New
York City. Murder is second.
In San Francisco, often called "the
gay capital of the United States," a
survey of 500 homosexual and bisex
ual men found that fear of the dis
ease had changed their sex lives.
AIDS, which renders the body's
immune system powerless to fight
infections, is transmitted primarily
through sexual contact when semen
containing the virus enters the blood
stream. The ailment may then take
two to six years to develop.
Although the disease largely hits
homosexuals in the United States and
Europe, the major victims in central
Africa, where the virus is believed to
have started, are heterosexuals.
Scientists theorize that the disease
began in monkeys and spread to
humans through bits or consumption
of monkey meat.
- Americans even take their fear
abroad, as confused Swiss waiters in
the resort of Gruyere reported
recently. A group of 25 American
tourists refused to eat their soup
from a communal bowl as is the
Alpine custom and demanded separ
ate bowls.
But the United States is not alone
in its fear.
In France, doctors say they have
isolated a new disease called "AIDS
psychosis."
Worried officials in Sweden, which
has 27 reported AIDS cases compared
to more than 12,000 in the United
States, distributed a brochure this
summer to overseas-bound tourists. It
carried a simple warning: Never Love
a Stranger.
In Zaire, where U.S. researcher Dr.
Robert Gallo, a discoverer of the AIDS
virus, says the disease is rampant, it
is also a joke. Zaireans openly shrug
off the threat with joking remarks,
calling it SIDA in French, standing
for Syndrome Imaginaire Pour Dis
courager Les Amoureux (Imaginary
Syndrome for Discouraging Lovers).
The Kenyan government does not
officially recognize the existence of
AIDS, despite frequently expressed
fears among Kenyans. According to
observers, it is a very unpopular sub
ject in a country that depends heavily
on tourism.
Here is how AIDS is being handled
in other countries:
O The Soviet Union: The disease
is almost ignored by the press and
most people are unaware it exists.
O China: Doctors in China admit
the disease is certain to gain a foot
hold in the world's most populous
country. To help check the entry of
the killer disease, China has banned
imports of nearly all blood products.
O Brazil: With 415 reported cases,
Brazil has the largest number of AIDS
victims of any country in Latin Amer
ica. While government officials insist
there is no epidemic, the Brazilian
public has shown evidence of panic,
with women even bringing their own
nail clippers to hairdressing salons
rather than risk using ones that oth
ers have used.
O West German: With 250 known
cases, doctors think there could be
150 virus carriers for every known
case and that the number of victims
will double each year.
O East Germany: Although there
have been no known cases, East Ger
many has set up a committee to mon
itor AIDS, believing it is only a mat
ter of time before the disease
appears. Homosexuality is handled in
liberal fashion in East Germany,
unlike the Soviet Union where it is a
crime punishable by up to five years
in a labor camp.
O Egypt: The government is con
sidering blood tests for all arrivals
from the United States and other
countries and is considering instruct
ing its embassies to issue visas only
to those with certificates proving they
do not have the disease.
The Middle East's only confirmed
AIDS case is a Lebanese homosexual
who returned home from San Fran
cisco to.see his family before he died.
While homosexuality is common
throughout the Middle East, news
papers in Iran have called AIDS a
disease symbolic of the corrupt and
decadent West.
Hong Kong: Three cases have
been reported, leading officials to set
up a telephone hotline to give infor
mation on AIDS, a service offered in
many other countries. Doctors say
AIDS will spread rapidly in Hong
Kong since homosexual acts are
punishable by life imprisonment and
most such activity is furtive, thus
encouraging the sort of anonymous
sexual contact that spreads the
disease.
O Australia: Fears have increased
in the last two months after three
Sydney women developed AIDS anti
bodies through artificial insemina
tion. Now all blood, sperm and organ
donors must sign legally binding dec
larations that they are not in the
high-risk group.
PACs election spending near $23 million
WASHINGTON (AP) Political act
ion committees and individuals spent
nearly $23 million on the 1984 election,
much of which was disbursed by con
servative groups for what turned out to
be a sure thing Ronald Reagan's
re-election.
The biggest individual spender was
Michael Goland, a rich California busi
nessman who staged a one-man adver
tising campaign to help unseat former
Sen. Charles Percy, R-Ill. He spent
$419,573, according to a report on
independent expenditures released Sun
day by the Federal Election Commis
sion. The National Conservative Political
Action Committee, which won a
Supreme Court victory against the FEC
last March ensuring its right to spend
unlimited amounts independently, shel
led out $9.8 million for President Reagan.
NCPAC also spent $289,995 against
Democratic challenger Walter Mondale
and $116,000 against 14 other Demo
crats and Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. of
Cqnnecticutf a liberal Republican.
All tolC conservative PACs spent
$15.8 million promoting Reagan's re
election, while liberals spent only
$803,923 on their own trying to elect
Mondale. There was $343,835 worth of
negative expenditures against Reagan
and $445,240 against Mondale.
A campaign expenditure is consi
dered independent if the activity it
finances is not organized or coordi
nated with a candidate's campaign.
James C. Moore, a real estate inves
tor from Dripping Springs, Texas, was
the second biggest individual spender
by virtue of the $79,934 he spent in a
losing cause: the U.S. Senate race of
former Democratic State Sen. Lloyd
Doggett against Phil Gramm, the
Democrat-turned-Republican winner.
Another Texan, Houston business
man Cecil Haden ranked third in indi
vidual expenditures by spending $40,386
to promote Reagan's re-election.
It was widely reported last year,
based on reporters' scrutiny of FEC
records as well as a statement by
Goland's attorney, that the California
developer had spent more than $1 mil
lion or negative commercials, mailings
and billboards against Percy, then
chairman of the Seriate Foreign Rela
tions Committee.
Goland, a staunch supporter of Israel
and pro-Israel politicians, accused
Percy of being "a chameleon."
But Sharon Snyder, an FEC spokes
woman, said the $419,573 "was all the
man reported." Goland could not be
reached for comment Friday.
Mews makers
A roundup of the day's happenings
Pete Rose tied Ty Cobb's career record for hits
Sunday, singling for his 4,191st hit in a game he wasn't
even supposed to play and moving to the threshold of
uncharted baseball territory, the 44-year-old player-manager
of the Cincinnati Reds now stands poised to break
one of the game's most hallowed records a mark set by
a legendary man in a time few remember.
. Hie Eev. Everett Sileven says he is just a little
embsrassed that the word "governor" was misspelled on a
campaign banner that flew over Memorial Stadium Satur
day. But Sileven says he thinks the banner, which
announced "Sileven For Govenor," is "beautiful" because
it drew attention. "That's the purest form of advertising,"
he says.
In Tcscon, Arizona, heart recipient Michael
Drummond, 25, told his parents "It's just wonderful to
have a new heart." Drummond is the youngest man to
receive an artificial heart.
From Newt Wires
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Shift in S. Africa policy e::pected '
.WASHINGTON Present F,e::n, faced with wmtefcatag pressure
from Congress, Is expected to announce limited economic sanctions
? against South Africa today, including a desire to ban the sale of gold
'!: Krugemnds, congressional sources said Sunday. V
These sources also said Reajan would announce a ban on most new
bank loans to South Africa, order a halt to the shipment of nuclear
technology and stop large-scale sales cf computer equipment used to
. enforce South Africa's racially discriminatory apartheid laws.
Speaking on condition they not be identified, the sources also said
Reagan would announce requirements for most American firms in South
Africa to follow fair employment practices and would make available
expanded U.S. aid for South African black students,
The expected announcement would mark a shin in Reagan's long-held
policy of "constructive engagement" a low-key effort of negotiations that
the president said on Friday offered the best hope of accomplishing
political reform in South Africa.
Botha rejects talks with guerrillas
- JOHANNESBURG, South Africa President P. W. Botha said Sunday it
would be disloyal for a group of South Africa's leading business executives
to meet with the African National Congress, and flatly rejected talks with
the outlawed black guerrilla movement.
Botha acknowledged in a statement issued in the capital, Pretoria, that
a "leading South African" suggested the plan to him a few weeks ago. He
did not identify the person. "I strongly advised against it," said Botha. "As
long as the ANC is under communist leadership and supports violence in
. South Africa there can be no question of me approving discussions with
them . . . "I regard such attempts as unwise and even disloyal to the
young men who are sacrificing their lives in defending South Africa's
safety."
' Botha has been under increasing pressure to translate into action an
Aug. 15 offer to talk to unspecified black leaders about what he termed
"co-responsibility."
Four hurt in W. Virginia gas leak
CHARLESTON, W. Va. Four people were hurt Sunday when a cloud of
gas leaked from a small, family -ran chemical plant near Charleston, an
official said. -
It was the third chemical leak in the Kanawah Valley area of West
Virginia in less than a month. The other two involved Union Carbide plants
situated in Institute and South Charleston. The leak at Carbide's Insti
tute plant on Aug. 11 set 135 people to hospitals.
In Sunday's leak, the plant owner, his son-in-law and two employees
Were taken to the hospital suffering from inhalation of methyl marcapatin,
a sulphur-based chemical. The chemical, which can be poisonous in high
concentrations, escaped at Jevels which were not toxic, the official said.
Food aid delayed; famine continues
NAIROBI, Kenya Most African countries severely hit by famine last
year can expect decent harvests this season, but poor distribution of food
aid still is costing lives, a United Nations agency reported Sunday.
In Sudan, in particular, people are bound to starve in coming months
even though the government and foreign donors are trying to speed up
food delivery, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said in its latest
monthly report on Africa's food situation.
"Internal logistic bottlenecks, exacerbated by recent heavy rains, are
preventing the distribution of the aid already received and causing severe
port congestion," the FAO said of the plight of Sudan and some other
countries. The United States has provided three military helicopters to
help clear the backlog, and the European community seven C-130 trans
port planes. .
Last week the leader of Ethiopia's Marxist government, Mengistu Haile
Mariam, said his country will need 1 million tons of food aid from abroad
in 1986. For 1985, Ethiopia asked for 1.5 million tons of foreign food aid
most supplied by the West. That figure was close to 25 percent of its
normal annual grain production of around 6.2 million tons.
Fires cloud industrial city's future
PASSAIC, N J. A Labor Day inferno razed 18 industrial buildings and
Jet 2,200 people without jobs, but city officials fear the damage may run
far deeper, breaking the stride of an economic rebound.
Eamm ... you get wiped out, nothing left," said a tired and frustrated
Joseph Upari, mayor cf this industrial city cf 53,000 residents 15 miles
west of Manhattan.
Two 12-year-old bop are accused cf setting the fire that scorched 40
acres, including buildings housing CO small manufacturers. More than 100
ramLses were turned out by the blaze.
. The youngsters, who allegedly were playing with u iicfi.es, have been
. charged with juvenile delinquency. They were released Friday into the
cuiic::y ci their parents until V ;'r t:ii C:t. 11
me Lre ccstrcyed an estimated IT 3 r "'-n i -'S c f r fiicntial ana
commercial property ard 2 irlrVi Vf 7? rf7'-'- -'cturing
space, .5 percent cft.? in' --!-- .Sr!:r ?r'Ies.