Fighting On

AMERICA WAS INFECTED WITH THE VIRUS OF RACIAL inequality long before the appearance of HIV; now a new study contends that a symbiotic relationship between the two afflictions is having deadly results. Noting that blacks and Hispanics make up 46% of all the AIDS cases in the U.S., the National Commission on AIDS report argues that the disease should be treated as a racial issue. "Racial inequality in the U.S.," it reads in part, "is pre- eminent among the festering social problems . . . upon which the epidemic feeds." The results of inequality include poor health care, inferior education and, for some, a collapse into injection drug use -- all of which help AIDS to spread. The commission's solutions: more community-based health services and greater minority inclusion in the testing of new treatments. The study warned, "For these communities, disproportionate representation raises the fear that they will be saddled with the disease -- blamed for it, stigmatized by it and left to deal with it on their own."