Dreadful Disease

What is a dreadful disease comparable almost to cancer? The answer is loneliness. It eats at you morning, noon and night--and won't let you go. The cure is companionship and if you are unable to find someone, death will come soon enough to put you out of your misery. HY BRENOFF Pico Rivera

It seems hard to believe that a mother would kill two of her own children (" 'Motherly Love' Cited in Sons' Deaths," June 20). However, if you have gone through the terrible, agonizing years of Huntington's disease you would have an insight into what went on in Carol Carr's mind. My wife has the disease. She cannot speak, she drools, she falls--it goes on and on. Her problems started in the mid-1980s. It is usually a very slow process. My wife may live for another 10 years, and she is only going to deteriorate more.

While reading all the articles about AIDS, I find myself getting angrier all the time. I am sure I am not the only one who feels that we are pussyfooting around the main issue: AIDS is a contagious disease and must be treated as such. Mandatory testing will have to be instituted sooner or later, especially for couples planning to get married. Do you think it is fair that a person may contact AIDS from a marriage partner and bring AIDS-afflicted babies into the world? When we were married, we had to have blood tests for syphilis and gonorrhea before we could obtain our marriage license and nobody objected to that.

As most cancer survivors can attest, the initial diagnosis is usually followed by a sense of hopelessness and despair that it's a death sentence from which there is no clemency. But for those who attended the National Cancer Survivor Day celebrations in Ventura County on Sunday, there were plenty of examples that cancer in many cases can be beat.

My first reading of Shaw's article on AIDS left me stunned, and more than a little upset. I was appalled at what I perceived to be a positive treatment of Rock Hudson's "contribution" to the public's awareness of the threat of AIDS. On the second reading, I came to realize that Shaw's intent had been to indicate that it took the death of a celebrity to focus the attention of the press on an issue that simply had not yet aroused the interest of those of us not immediately affected by this dreadful disease.

I am outraged by the article "AIDS--A Threat to All--How Serious?" Gee, how serious can a mere 40,051 reported AIDS cases be? Over 40,000 lives destroyed by this dreadful disease. "We don't need to panic about heterosexual transmission . . ." is such a naive statement. AIDS does not discriminate--male, female, adult or child--and the numbers of newly reported cases grow constantly. Any attempt to put the minds of the public at ease should be abandoned. Awareness is our only means of combatting this epidemic!

It seems hard to believe that a mother would kill two of her own children (" 'Motherly Love' Cited in Sons' Deaths," June 20). However, if you have gone through the terrible, agonizing years of Huntington's disease you would have an insight into what went on in Carol Carr's mind. My wife has the disease. She cannot speak, she drools, she falls--it goes on and on. Her problems started in the mid-1980s. It is usually a very slow process. My wife may live for another 10 years, and she is only going to deteriorate more.

As most cancer survivors can attest, the initial diagnosis is usually followed by a sense of hopelessness and despair that it's a death sentence from which there is no clemency. But for those who attended the National Cancer Survivor Day celebrations in Ventura County on Sunday, there were plenty of examples that cancer in many cases can be beat.

The chairman of a House subcommittee Monday accused federal regulators of threatening valuable research into cancer and other diseases by limiting access to RU-486--France's so-called abortion pill. "Americans with breast cancer and other dread diseases have become the innocent victims of this Administration's political brinkmanship with the pro-choice movement on abortion," said Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.

Banking away from the freeways toward the seashore, Laguna Canyon Road fairly sings of the beauty, escape and fun ahead. It skims past a shallow lagoon, then sweeps by towering eucalyptus trees and cattle grazing on hillsides. The road spills out onto Coast Highway and Main Beach, where on a warm fall day the carefree and the bronzed play volleyball and bask in the sunshine.

Four men hobbled on board the coal barge that carried the first seven leprosy patients to a new hospital upriver from New Orleans. Two women and a man couldn't walk. They were carried. They went by coal barge because no carriage driver or conventional boat captain in New Orleans would take them. No landlord would let them stay. "The lepers were made as comfortable as possible," wrote a reporter who made the all-night trip in greater comfort, aboard the tug Ella Andrews.

Banking away from the freeways toward the seashore, Laguna Canyon Road fairly sings of the beauty, escape and fun ahead. It skims past a shallow lagoon, then sweeps by towering eucalyptus trees and cattle grazing on hillsides. The road spills out onto Coast Highway and Main Beach, where on a warm fall day the carefree and the bronzed play volleyball and bask in the sunshine.

The chairman of a House subcommittee Monday accused federal regulators of threatening valuable research into cancer and other diseases by limiting access to RU-486--France's so-called abortion pill. "Americans with breast cancer and other dread diseases have become the innocent victims of this Administration's political brinkmanship with the pro-choice movement on abortion," said Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.

My first reading of Shaw's article on AIDS left me stunned, and more than a little upset. I was appalled at what I perceived to be a positive treatment of Rock Hudson's "contribution" to the public's awareness of the threat of AIDS. On the second reading, I came to realize that Shaw's intent had been to indicate that it took the death of a celebrity to focus the attention of the press on an issue that simply had not yet aroused the interest of those of us not immediately affected by this dreadful disease.

While reading all the articles about AIDS, I find myself getting angrier all the time. I am sure I am not the only one who feels that we are pussyfooting around the main issue: AIDS is a contagious disease and must be treated as such. Mandatory testing will have to be instituted sooner or later, especially for couples planning to get married. Do you think it is fair that a person may contact AIDS from a marriage partner and bring AIDS-afflicted babies into the world? When we were married, we had to have blood tests for syphilis and gonorrhea before we could obtain our marriage license and nobody objected to that.

I am outraged by the article "AIDS--A Threat to All--How Serious?" Gee, how serious can a mere 40,051 reported AIDS cases be? Over 40,000 lives destroyed by this dreadful disease. "We don't need to panic about heterosexual transmission . . ." is such a naive statement. AIDS does not discriminate--male, female, adult or child--and the numbers of newly reported cases grow constantly. Any attempt to put the minds of the public at ease should be abandoned. Awareness is our only means of combatting this epidemic!

Four men hobbled on board the coal barge that carried the first seven leprosy patients to a new hospital upriver from New Orleans. Two women and a man couldn't walk. They were carried. They went by coal barge because no carriage driver or conventional boat captain in New Orleans would take them. No landlord would let them stay. "The lepers were made as comfortable as possible," wrote a reporter who made the all-night trip in greater comfort, aboard the tug Ella Andrews.

One of my earliest memories is of standing in line, in some sort of meeting hall, waiting to be given a sugar cube soaked in polio vaccine. Polio was all but eradicated in America by the time I actually knew what it was, but its cultural effects still resonated: I remember Gumby, the little clay boy, being put in an iron lung (used to help polio victims breathe) in one episode; it was one of the most disturbing images of my childhood.

What is a dreadful disease comparable almost to cancer? The answer is loneliness. It eats at you morning, noon and night--and won't let you go. The cure is companionship and if you are unable to find someone, death will come soon enough to put you out of your misery. HY BRENOFF Pico Rivera