Proclamation 5709 --
AIDS Awareness and Prevention Month, 1987
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
The
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the disease AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome) into which it can develop are a severe public health
problem in the
AIDS
afflicts thousands of Americans, and an unknown number are infected with HIV
without showing any symptoms. The deadly virus is most commonly spread through
sexual contact with an infected person, especially through homosexual
practices; through intravenous drug use with contaminated needles; and through
other transmissions of infected blood. Our country's huge and vital public
health task of AIDS prevention and treatment is underway. Massive public and
private efforts have already led to definite advances in research and
treatment. Our understanding of AIDS remains incomplete, however, and much
remains to be done before any vaccine or cure is found.
A
Presidential Commission is studying the public health dangers of the HIV
epidemic, including the medical, legal, ethical, social, and economic impact,
and will issue a report next year, focusing on Federal, State, and local
measures to protect the public from contracting the virus, to help find a cure
for AIDS, and to care for those already afflicted.
Both
medicine and morality teach the same lesson about prevention of AIDS. The
Surgeon General has told all Americans that the best way to prevent AIDS is to
abstain from sexual activity until adulthood and then to restrict sex to a
monogamous, faithful relationship. This advice and the advice to say no to
drugs can, of course, prevent the spread of most AIDS cases. Millions already
follow this wise and timeless counsel, and our Nation is the poorer for the
lost contributions of those who, in rejecting it, have suffered great pain,
sorrow, and even death.
Education
is crucial for awareness and prevention of AIDS. Parents have the primary
responsibility to help children see the beauty, goodness, and fulfillment of
chastity before marriage and fidelity within it; know the blessings of stable
family life; and say yes to life and no to drugs. Educational efforts should be
locally determined and consistent with parental values. Educators can develop
and relay accurate health information about AIDS without mandating a specific
curriculum on this subject. Parents and educators should teach children not to
engage in premarital sex or to use drugs, and should place sexuality in the
context of marriage, fidelity, commitment, and maturity.
Prevention
of AIDS also demands responsibility from those who persist in high-risk
behavior that is spreading AIDS. While many of these individuals apparently
have not been convinced by educational efforts, some have begun to modify their
behavior. AIDS is a fatal communicable disease of wide proportions, and all
people of goodwill must realize that it is a public health problem whose
prevention requires, at minimum, measures of detection, testing, and treatment
now routinely taken against less dangerous communicable diseases. Our goal must
be to protect the lives, the health, and the well-being of all our citizens.
Public officials are entrusted with and sworn to the sacred duty of such
protection. Our country needs wisdom and courage in this effort.
We
also need to remember that the battle against AIDS calls for calmness,
compassion, and conviction -- calmness, to remember that fear is the enemy of
just solutions; compassion, for all AIDS victims; and conviction, for the
understanding and the willingness to combat this major public health threat
effectively.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan,
President of the
In
Witness Whereof, I
have hereunto set my hand this 29th day of Sept., in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register,