People With Aids

As a man who has had AIDS for 10 years, David Horner knows well that people infected with the disease can find themselves unable to work, unable to afford their homes, unable to find new lodgings and, sometimes, unable to find a place to die.Five years ago, after becoming too ill to work and for a time rejected by his family, the former Washington job search counselor lost his home.Now the director of the Black Educational AIDS Project of Baltimore, Mr. Horner sits on a metropolitan-area panel recently created by thecity housing department to develop ways of preventing others from being caught in the same downward spiral.

Harry L. Holfelder, First and Franklin Street Presbyterian Church's retired pastor and an early advocate for the spiritual and physical needs of people with AIDS, died of cancer Saturday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He lived in Mount Washington and was 70. Arriving in Baltimore nearly two decades ago as pastor of the Mount Vernon area church, the Rev. Holfelder held the pulpit for 13 years and was chairman of the AIDS Interfaith Network of Baltimore. "People of faith have to ask themselves whether they will be compassionate or judgmental," he told an Evening Sun reporter in 1989.

SAN FRANCISCO -- When Craig Louis fell ill with AIDS, his friends took him out for Chinese food, raised $173.91 for him at a yard sale and played host to a barbecue for his parents. The also sat by his bed and kept track of his medication.They chronicled their activities in a lively newsletter, printed on purple paper and distributed among friends, called the Craig Report."Craig's health has taken a turn," reads an entry in one issue. Then the inevitable news: "This is the Craig Report no one wanted to read, or write."

Already a force in the fight against AIDS in Africa, the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology is expanding its reach to Asia with an agreement to help China keep its emerging epidemic from exploding into one of the world's largest. Under the agreement, to be signed today at its annual conference in Baltimore, the institute will assist China in finding appropriate drug treatments and efficient ways of getting them to patients. The pact also calls for Baltimore doctors to train Chinese physicians in the care of people with AIDS and for China to send young researchers to work in the institute's laboratories on West Lombard Street.

An interfaith gathering of people with AIDS, their friends and their families assembled last night to reflect on the illness and its effects in light of the Israelite story of liberation from slavery. The first Seder of Hope: an Interfaith Gathering for People Touched by AIDS drew about 125 to Har Sinai Congregation in Upper Park Heights for a mock Seder the week before Passover. "This is our story of redemption," said Rabbi Steven Fink of Temple Oheb Shalom, also in Upper Park Heights, as he began the ritual.

The two Rosedale men who made Moving to Opportunity the hottest political issue in Eastern Baltimore County last summer still are stoking public outrage -- but now about housing money for AIDS victims and automobile emissions testing.The furor they caused in trying to stop the federal housing program that will move 285 poor inner-city families to better neighborhoods faded after the November election, but Jerry Hersl and Raymond C. Shiflet haven't faded with it.They're opposed to the county accepting federal money to prevent homelessness among county AIDS victims and their families.

Diane is a 34-year-old single mother of three who has AIDS. Her world revolves around caring for her illness so she can take care of her children.Diane, who asked that her real name not be used, says she couldn't do either without the Aids Alliance of Howard County, the nonprofit agency that coordinates services for county residents who test positive for the human immunodeficiency virus. When possible, the alliance also provides them with emergency financial help.The alliance has come through twice with grants totaling $2,200 when Diane got behind on the $800 monthly rent on her Columbia home.

When Synthia Smith learned she was infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, she assumed she would die quickly, anonymously and hopelessly addicted to drugs. An African-American woman from Park Heights, she felt an outcast both in her neighborhood and in a growing AIDS community that was dominated by gay white men. She kept her disease a secret and didn't pursue treatment. "I just didn't see a lot of people living very long," she said. That was 15 years ago - another era in the history of this disease.

Garey Lambert, a tireless and courageous advocate for people with AIDS, lost his own fight against the disease yesterday and died at Johns Hopkins Hospital, surrounded by family and friends. He was 49.Alfred Garey Lambert III, known best by his middle name, died late in the afternoon with his daughter, Kathryn, 17, holding his hand. More than 20 people from his very wide circle of friends had gathered in his room as his life ran out with the day."He was awake and alert until the very end," said Dr. Richard Chaisson, the director of the Hopkins AIDS service who spent much of the day with Mr. Lambert.

An Associated Press article in yesterday's editions of The Sun incorrectly reported that Baltimore will receive a $40 million federal grant to provide housing services for homeless people with AIDS. In fact, the money will cover a myriad of housing services for low-income people with and without AIDS. It includes Baltimore's annual $30 million allocation of the Community Development Block Grant Fund to revitalize the city's poor neighborhoods.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 8/24/96

State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer said yesterday that he won't step down over criticism of comments he made about people with AIDS, and he took a swipe at the person who called for his resignation, calling state Del. John Adams Hurson a coward who "can't do his job." During an appearance at a celebration called the Apple Festival beside the Shot Tower in Baltimore yesterday, Schaefer told reporters he'll "file charges" against Hurson, a Montgomery County Democrat, accusing Hurson of violating his freedom of speech.

With tuberculosis the leading cause of death worldwide among people with AIDS, a leading charity has awarded $44.7 million to a consortium led by Johns Hopkins scientists that aims to find the best way to combat the twin epidemics in developing nations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the grant yesterday at the XV International Conference on AIDS in Bangkok, Thailand. The money will pay for projects in South America and Africa, including one that will deliver anti-TB medications to thousands of coal miners across South Africa.

CHENGLAO, China - Luo Aimei, a 33-year-old mother weakened by illness, lies listlessly in her bed, feverish and coughing. If she were even suspected of having SARS, government officials would probably take her to a hospital for treatment, though she has no money. But Luo knows no one is coming for her, because she doesn't have SARS. She has AIDS. Hundreds of others in this village of about 1,000 have AIDS or are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, and those infected include her husband and, the couple fears, the younger of their two children, a 3 1/2 -year-old boy frequently stricken with fever and coughs.

WASHINGTON - The House resoundingly approved President Bush's plan for a new global campaign against AIDS yesterday, authorizing $15 billion to help fight a rampaging epidemic that has killed or infected tens of millions and threatens political stability in some of the world's poorest countries. The legislation, which passed 375-41 despite the misgivings of some influential conservatives, breaks new ground for a Republican-led Congress often skeptical of foreign aid. Its commitment of $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS and two other diseases - tuberculosis and malaria - that often afflict people with AIDS would dwarf the $1.6 billion the United States now spends annually on the international health crisis.

BEIJING - China released a prominent AIDS activist from detention yesterday after he acknowledged leaking state secrets, apparently ending a case that drew widespread international criticism of the government. The activist, Wan Yanhai, disappeared Aug. 25. It was later learned he had been placed under investigation by state security for disseminating a government AIDS report over the Internet. China's official Xinhua News Agency said Wan had been detained on suspicion of illegally leaking state secrets and had been released after "confessing his crime."

ABUJA, Nigeria - Seeking to breaking down the taboos shrouding a disease that has devastated Africa, President Clinton urged Nigerians yesterday to show the same resolve they displayed in enduring decades of dictatorship in confronting what he called the "tyranny" of AIDS. Clinton, standing beside a man infected with the virus that afflicts 24 million Africans and has become the continent's leading killer, applauded Nigeria's efforts to control the spread of AIDS. But he offered a blunt reminder to Africans that acquired immune deficiency syndrome is preventable - if people will only speak frankly about how it is spread, and then act. "AIDS is 100 percent preventable - if we are willing to deal with it openly and honestly," Clinton said.

The Maryland General Assembly is flirting again with legislation that would compromise the privacy rights of people with AIDS. The state government says it wants mandatory testing of certain populations, particularly health-care workers, to protect the public and to help people who are infected get the treatment they need.Virtually every medical and scientific authority to have an opinion on the subject, including the federal Centers for Disease Control, says that mandatory testing will not achieve those goals.

For the past two years photographer Michela Caudill has photographed people with AIDS in the context of their care givers -- family, friends, volunteers or medical professionals. She has seen the bonds that develop between patient and care giver, and her work has now become an art show. Her photographs are to be seen in "Together with AIDS," opening tomorrow at School 33 Art Center.At School 33 Art Center, 1427 Light St., tomorrow through Jan. 5. 11 a.m. to 4 pm. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

When Synthia Smith learned she was infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, she assumed she would die quickly, anonymously and hopelessly addicted to drugs. An African-American woman from Park Heights, she felt an outcast both in her neighborhood and in a growing AIDS community that was dominated by gay white men. She kept her disease a secret and didn't pursue treatment. "I just didn't see a lot of people living very long," she said. That was 15 years ago - another era in the history of this disease.

Two women who were high school friends in Towson almost three decades ago have put their feet to the bicycle pedals to raise money for the fight against AIDS. Danna Truslow of Rye, N.H., and Cynthia Fenneman of Kittery, Maine, took part in the four-day, 330-mile Washington, D.C., AIDS Ride 5, an effort to raise $3.2 million for organizations that assist people with AIDS. The organizations include Food and Friends, which prepares and delivers meals to homebound people with AIDS in the Washington area.