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Thursday, October 23, 1986 / University Daily Kansai
Surgeon warns against casual sex
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Surgeon General C. Everett Koop urged parents and educators yesterday to teach teenagers how to prevent AIDS and warned against "free-wheeling casual sex" that spreads the AIDS virus.
Although most cases have occurred among homosexual and bisexual men and drug abusers, there is danger the AIDS virus could spread more widely among the general population unless precautions are taken. Koop said.
"Many people — especially our youth — are not receiving the information that is vital to their future health and well-being because of our reticence in dealing with the subjects of sex, sexual practices and homosexuality," he said. "This silence must end."
*Education about AIDS should start at an early age so that children
can grow up knowing the behaviors to avoid to protect themselves from exposure to the AIDS virus," the surgeon general said.
Koop said the risk of infection increases as the number of sexual partners — male or female — increases.
"Couples who engage in casual sex these days are playing a dangerous game," he said.
Many people infected with the AIDS virus have no symptoms but can infect others, the surgeon general said, adding that the best protection against infection, barring abstinence, is use of a condom.
"A condom should be used during sexual relations, from start to finish, with anyone whom you know or suspect is infected," he said.
Koop said sex and AIDS education can begin at home as soon as children begin asking questions, or by the third or fourth grade if they fail to speak up. In school, AIDS education must start at "the lowest grade possible" as part of health or hygiene classes, he said.
Koop made his comments at a news conference to announce publication of a booklet containing his report about AIDS, in which he said the number of AIDS fatalities may grow to 179,000 by the end of 1991.
But he estimated 12,000 to 14,000 lives may be saved if everyone at risk for contracting the virus took precautions.
As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta had recorded 26,500 cases of AIDS in the United States, about 15,000 of which have resulted in death. About 1,000 cases are attributed to heterosexual transmission.
Dr. Harold Jaffe, chief of the epidemiology branch for the AIDS program at the CDC, said there is great variation in heterosexuals' risk of infection with the AIDS virus
"A woman who is having sex with a drug user in New York City is at a significant risk. However, for a woman who has two sexual partners in her lifetime and lives in Omaha, the risk is minuscule," he said.
The acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus is spread by intimate sexual contact, use of contaminated blood products and sharing needles for intravenous drug abuse.
Koop said if someone is not absolutely certain about a potential partner, then you have to assume he or she is at risk of being an AIDS virus carrier, though the risk may be small. He suggested questioning to determine the partners' habits.
"I would say there are going to be some very interesting conversations in bedrooms," he quipped, but added seriously, "We're talking about death here."
He said monogamous couples who have been faithful to each other for at least five years are not at risk.
United Press International
Honeywell plans to leave S.Africa
MINNEAPOLIS — Honeywell Inc. said yesterday that its board of directors was considering selling its South African operations. The proposed sale would make it the third major U.S. company to sell its South African subsidiary in a week.
"The board of Honeywell is considering certain options for the sale of its South African affiliate. No final action has been taken," said Susan Eich, spokewoman for Honeywell.
Directors of Honeywell, which makes computers, electronics and defense equipment, were appointed in 1974.
Company officials would not elaborate on their short statement about the proposed sale, but the Minneapolis Star and Tribune reported yesterday that Elizabeth Bailey, a dean at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a member of the Honeywell board since 1945, said directors decided to sell the subsidiary to a South African company.
The Honeywell decision to sell reportedly came at a board meeting in Scotland.
Bailey was not in Pittsburgh yesterday and was unavailable for comment.
Honeywell would be the 76th company since 1984 to decide to sell its operations in the racially troubled nation, IBM Corp. said Tuesday it will sell its South African subsidiary to local owners, and General Motors announced similar plans a day earlier.
The Minneapolis-based company employed 159 people in South Africa, 49 of whom are black. Bailey, in the published report, said sales of its South African subsidiary have slipped from $35 million in 1984, the last year for which figures are available.
The company's South African subsidiary provided less than 1 percent of the company's worldwide revenue and considerably less than 1 percent of total assets, a spokeswoman said.
Honeywell is in the midst of a restructuring of
the corporation, including last month's announced reduction of its worldwide work force by 4,000 people from the previous 94,000 through attrition, lavoffs and early retirement.
The company also is making changes in its controls products, factory automation systems and computer operations. The changes are designed to strengthen its financial and competitive standing.
Honeywell has long touted its efforts in South Africa as a force for change and it had resisted pressure to depart.
Bailey, the dean of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon, said Honeywell's decision was not related to IBM's and General Motors' decisions. South Africa was one of about four international issues discussed at the board meeting, she said.
Poor economic performance, she said, was related in part to the steep decline in the South African rand in recent months.
NATO ministers back U.S. summit action
United Press International
GLENEAGLES, Scotland — NATO defense ministers ended their nuclear conference yesterday the way the Americans wanted it, with a ringing endorsement of President Reagan's conduct at Reykjavik and a slap at Soviet negotiating tactics.
Behind the scenes, the ministers reaffirmed civilian control over the alliance, giving a gentle rap on the knuckles to NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Bernard Rogers and other military leaders who had questioned whether the United States went too far too fast in Iceland.
In a 12-point rather vague comunique, the NATO Nuclear Planning Group fully endorsed Reagan's bold attempt to seek far-reaching arms control agreements with the Soviet Union at the Oct. 11-12 summit in Roviklavi.
The document backed Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative, the antimissile defense program commonly known as Star Wars, without mentioning it by name.
"We strongly support the United States exploration of space and defense systems, as is permitted by the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty," it said.
Reagan's refusal to give up Star Wars in exchange for an agreement on dismantling medium-range nuclear missiles in Eastern and Western Europe stalled the summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
That linkage drew sharp comment from NATO chiefs. They insisted Moscow up to its promise to hold a missile pact "hostage" to any other agreement and warned, "A failure to do so would destroy the credibility of the highest Soviet assurances."
NATO said U.S. aims to build upon
the progress achieved in Iceland provided the opportunity for progress toward very significant arms agreements and urged the Soviet Union to redouble its own efforts in this direction.
The outcome at the two-day Gleneagles meeting clearly was a victory for Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, who pronounced it "extremely satisfactory . . . one of the least contentious I have attended."
The session had threatened to be a stormy one in the wake of criticism by Rogers and other military chiefs that warnings they had given U.S. negotiators in advance of Reykjavik had been ignored.
The ministers approved a secret document that underscored their intention to keep NATO's defense planning under civilian control.
Britain's Lord Carrington, NATO secretary general, referred to the document in passing. Carrington said
using the document to fire NATO generals critical of civilian strategists would be drastic.
Weinberger kept the lid on with adept briefing of his NATO colleagues what happened at Reykjavik, U.S. defense thinking and Soviet military developments, including a program similar to Star Wars.
NATO ministers, who next meet in Norway in the spring of 1987, said they remained deeply concerned about continuing Soviet efforts to upgrade and expand their military capabilities across the board.
The solidarity shown among the allies in their communique did not quite paper over their differences. Norway and Denmark still ban nuclear weapons on their own soil, and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl personally opposes Star Wars.
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Director: Jean Vigo
At first this film by the anarchist artist, Vigo, seems to be a realistic and conventional film but slowly we begin to see that is all very dream-like and highly romantic. It is a film expressing physical love through the use of sensuous imagery.
Tonight:
7:00 p.m.
Coming This Weekend
"The Trip to Bountiful"
"The Harder They Come"
"The Mystery of Picasso"
$2.00
Woodruff Aud.