SAN FRANCISCO -- Top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services privately were pleading for more federal funds to conduct AIDS research while publicly saying no more money was needed to probe the mysterious disease, it was reported today.
The San Francisco Chronicle, reporting from documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, said federal health officials warned last spring that important AIDS research was shelved because of the lack of federal money.
To maintain a minimum level of AIDS research, the Chronicle said the documents showed the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta diverted millions of dollars from other important health projects because funds for AIDS were unavailable.
Critics have maintained the federal government moved slowly at the outbreak of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, although Reagan administration officials insisted federal health agencies were given adequade funds.
AIDS is believed to be triggered by an unknown infectious agent which researchers think is a virus that spreads through sexual contact and blood or blood products.
The Chronicle said a review of the internal memos shows that the rapid proliferation of AIDS left federal health agencies delaying key AIDS research and scrambling for money.
'It has now reached the point where important AIDS work cannot be undertaken because of the lack of available resources,' wrote Edward Brandt, assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in a May 13 memo to the department's assistant secretary for management and budget.
In that memo, Brandt also lists a number of important health areas other than AIDS in which work was 'postponed, delayed or severely curtailed' because the center was diverting money to AIDS research from other federal health programs.
These included studies on hepatitis, influenza among the elderly, rabies and the restocking of important laboratory supplies.
But the Chronicle said Brandt also publicly supported the administration position just days before, testifying May 9 that extra funds to fight AIDS were 'unnecessary.'
Dr. William Foege of the Centers of Disease Control sent Brandt a 12-page request for funds in early May, but two weeks later, Thomas Donnelly, assistant health and human services secretary for legislation, wrote a Senate staff member that 'we are not in favor of additional appropriations' for AIDS research.
Over administration objections, the House passed $12 million in additional AIDS funds for the 1982-83 fiscal year, and $42 million for the 1983-84 fiscal year.
Dr. James Curran, director of AIDS research at the Atlanta center, said Oct. 20, 1983, that despite increases in the number of people suffering from AIDS, the affliction had not spread to new population groups.
He said 2,513 cases had been reported to the CDC as of Oct. 17, 1983, and 1,048 people had died, a fatality rate of 41 percent.
