Nation : Test All Babies, AIDS Panel Urges
WASHINGTON — Every American baby should be tested for signs of the AIDS virus, television networks should air condom commercials and drug users should be given sterile needles in efforts to stem the AIDS epidemic, a government advisory panel recommended today.
A National Academy of Sciences committee, charged with finding ways to slow the deadly spread of AIDS, concluded that there are no good statistics on how many Americans are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Best estimates of the nation’s AIDS epidemic “lie in the vicinity of 1 million infected people,” the committee said, adding that the number could be as low as 500,000 or as high as 2 million.
Even if effective AIDS drugs or vaccines are developed soon, it added, the virus is expected to be around at least 15 to 20 years more, possibly much longer.
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