A History of Disease Treatment

The directors of University Health Services (UHS) say they can best fight AIDS within Harvard's population by teaching people how to avoid the virus. Pointing to earlier experiences with sexually transmitted diseases, they say the University community usually has low levels of infection and responds quickly to educational campaigns on health.

During the 1986-87 academic year, University Health Services (UHS) screened approximately 200 women for chlamydia at Harvard, and found levels under five percent, instead of the national average of 15 to 20 percent.

Chlamydia is a microorganism blamed for what is currently the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease. The disease is characterized by mild initial symptoms of painful urination and discharge among both men and women. In rare cases, protracted infection can lead to sterility.

UHS Director Dr. Warren E.C. Wacker and his deputy, Dr. Sholem Postel, say they made the check to see whether additional measures needed to be taken within the University community.

The finding corroborated a long-term trend of low rates of sexually transmitted disease at Harvard, Wacker says, a trend which he says may indicate how AIDS will affect the University community.

Past experience has shown that Harvard also has low incidences of such diseases as gonorrhea and syphilis, Wacker says. "The lower incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in general speaks to the fact that probably casual sex on a pick-up basis is not very common among the group. Otherwise we would have seen a higher level of incidence compared to the rest of the population," the director says.

"I believe that most Harvard students do understand that there is a danger involved in risky sexual behavior. They understand there is a risk, and they avoid the risk," Wacker says.

The director cites studies of cigarette smoking among undergraduates in the 1960s and 1970s as evidence of how the community reacts to health issues tied to public education.

"Back in the mid-1970s, we discovered that smoking among Harvard students was very low," Wacker says. UHS found that around 10 percent of Harvard students smoked when they entered the College--compared with 35 percent nationwide for their age group. By the middle of the decade, when the Surgeon General declared smoking caused cancer, Wacker says, "Most people had gone all the way through school hearing smoking caused cancer."

"The more prestigious the college, the less smoking," says Wacker, adding that the same was true for student heroin use.

More recently, the University has gone to great lengths to teach students about AIDS.

Wacker says UHS has distributed pamphlets, trained clinical and mental health workers and the expanded the Health Educator's office.

As for work against AIDS, Postel says, "Of thought there's been a tremendous amount, of concern a tremendous amount." But he says the work necessary has been mostly preventative, Postel says.

UHS has dealt with large scale public health campaigns before. In the 1970s, during a severe influenza outbreak, UHS organized a massive inoculation effort. "It was planned for months. There was a cast of thousands. We administered 10,000 shots in three days," Postel says.

UHS and Harvard-affiliated hospitals can care for people who contract AIDS or test positive for the virus, say directors. An insurance program introduced this year at UHS to help cover pharmaceutical costs will help defray costs for AZT, an expensive drug used to treat AIDS, they say.