WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Former U.S. surgeon general C. Everett Koop says complacency on HIV/AIDS is as dangerous as the irrational fear of the virus in the 1980s.
"Today, one in five people with HIV (in the United States), or 21 percent, don't know they are infected," Koop said in a news conference in Washington Tuesday. "This number is even higher among HIV-infected gay and bisexual men and among infected teens."
Koop said more than 56,000 Americans become infected every year and more than 1.1 million Americans are living with the HIV infection and despite the efforts of medical science and public health, infections continue at far too high a level.
In the 1980s, when the AIDS virus went from a handful of cases to more than 30,000 in a few years, the country was rife with rumors and misinformation about HIV/AIDS, Koop said.
"Americans were worried about causal contact in schools, restaurants and public lavatories and as surgeon general, I saw my job as waging an all out war against disease -- not people," Koop said.
In 1986, Koop issued a report that focused on two messages -- the risk of infection increases with the number of sexual partners, male or female, and the best protection against infection, apart from abstinence, was use of a condom.
In 1988, Koop sent an eight-page condensed pamphlet of the report to all U.S. households, 170 million at the time.
"This is the first time the federal government provided explicit sex information to the public," Koop said.
