Preventing disease is not always pleasant; anyone who has ever held a child during an inoculation knows that.
But we accept the tears and cries because the alternative -- exposure to a host of nasty, potentially crippling infections -- is a thousand times worse.
It's much the same with AIDS. Preventing this scourge, which claims some 1,800 California lives every year, involves measures that can make us uncomfortable.
Distributing sterile syringes to intravenous drug users, for example, is a proven means of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. To some, that's an unpleasant thought. But the alternative, allowing more than 1,500 new cases of AIDS every year, is unacceptable.
That's why it's important that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sign my Assembly Bill 2871, a measure that simply makes it easier for counties to operate already-legal needle-exchange programs.
These programs, while they may be distasteful to some, are important and necessary. Putting our guard down in the face of a disease that continues to spread unchecked in many parts of the world would be a costly and terrible mistake.
The United States has been spared the kind of crushing infection rates that threaten the future of India and parts of Africa largely because of our wealth and medical technology. But even our vast resources will not stop this plague unless we continue to make ground-level efforts to stop its spread.
On the whole, Californians understand this. A recent statewide Field Poll found that 70 percent of California voters approve of needle-exchange programs as a way to combat AIDS. Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma counties already operate programs.
But some people misconstrue this tough-minded prevention practice as soft-on-crime mollycoddling. It's not.
AB2871 doesn't legalize anything. Needle exchanges are already legal, and have been for five years. These programs not only help check the spread of AIDS, they provide an environment in which addicts can receive information that could lead them on the road toward treatment and recovery.
All the benefits of these important public health programs are threatened by a curious requirement in existing law. As bizarre as it may seem, current law says that unless a county board of supervisors, or the appropriate elected body, declares a health emergency every two weeks, its needle-exchange program is deemed illegal. So, all it takes to stall this crucial effort is the absence of a quorum.
There's no good reason to require a health emergency declaration every two weeks. AIDS doesn't go away every two weeks. Starting and stopping these programs is like poking holes in a bullet-proof vest.
And if county officials change their minds, they're free to shut down their programs at any time.
We know that the measures we take to prevent the spread of HIV also prevent the spread of Hepatitis C. We know that contaminated needles infect 1,500 people every year in this state, a quarter of new cases. We know that a clean needle costs 15 cents, and treating a single AIDS patient can cost nearly $25,000 a year.
We know that 14 cities and counties operate needle-exchange programs, including Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma. We know that health officials from nine others have expressed interest in doing so if my bill becomes law.
What we don't know is one good reason why this bill shouldn't become law.
Patty Berg, D-Eureka, represents the 1st Assembly District.