Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
311842649
label
AIDS Awareness and Prevention Month [1987]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
311842649
contentType
document
title
AIDS Awareness and Prevention Month [1987]
citationUrl
identifierLocal
RR-108
collections
Records of the White House Correspondence Office
Proclamations Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
311842649
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
f191f82e05cdbba5
ocrText
THE OF THE UNITED
BO
SEEL
STATES
AIDS Awareness and Prevention Month, 1987
By the President of the United States of America
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 United States and elsewhere. HIV
destroys the immune system and attacks the central nervous system, leading to devastating physical
consequences and then to death. Because the virus has a long incubation period and the progress of the
disease varies sharply from individual to individual, people can unwittingly carry and spread it for years.
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 United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the month of
October 1987 as AIDS Awareness and Prevention Month, and I call on Americans to observe this month with
appropriate ceremonies and activities.
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 Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
twelfth.
Ronald Reagan