1986: Enter President Reagan

1986: Enter President Reagan

Another actor, who saw the news of Rock Hudson's 1985 death from AIDS, was by then the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). On March 31, 1986, President Ronald Reagan made his first noteable mention of the word "AIDS" publicly at the Third International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.,

Estimated AIDS-Opportunistic Illness Incidence by Exposure Category: Line graph showing estimated AIDS-opportunistic illness incidence by exposure category, January 1986-June 1996, United States Image Source: CDC/NCHSTIP/DHAP/Jean G. Smith

recommending routine testing for AIDS. With his conservative agenda, fiscal responsibility, not federal intervention would dictate his policies, but by this time there were some 60,000 cases of full-blown AIDS and 30,000 deaths. In the week prior to his State of the Union address, President Reagan said, "While there are hopes for drugs and vaccines against AIDS, none is immediately at hand. Consequently, efforts should focus on prevention, to inform and to lower risks of further transmission of the AIDS virus. To this end, I am asking the surgeon general to prepare a report to the American people on AIDS." Source: AEGIS.org Surgeon General C. Everett Koop (1982-1989) spent the next nine months working on that report, releasing it on October 22, 1986. He followed it with a Public Health Service brochure on CDC guidelines for AIDS -- "Understanding AIDS" -- which he penned himself, and was sent out as the "largest public health mailing ever done" to 107 million households in the United States in 1988. Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Koop's pamphlet, "Understanding AIDS," warned in the introduction: "AIDS is one of the most serious health problems that has ever faced the American public." It discussed "What Behavior Puts You At Risk?" The pamphlet classified "Risky Behavior" as: (1) Sharing drug needles and syringes, (2) Anal sex, with or without a condom, (3) Vaginal or oral sex with someone who shoots drugs or engages in anal sex, (4) Sex with someone you don't know well (a pickup or prostitute) or with someone you know has several sex partners, and (5) Unprotected sex (without a condom) with an infected person. Conversely, "Safe Behavior" was stated as: (1) Not having sex, (2) Sex with one mutually faithful, uninfected partner, and (3) Not shooting drugs. Source: AIDS Info BBS