Tonie Walsh casts a beady eye over selected press cuttings from the last month.

"Death by Apathy" Screamed the banner heading in Magill (September) magazine. Not another death by hysteria I thought to myself on viewing the two and a half page article by Patsy McGarry on perceptions within the AIDS community that "Irish people have developed a major ostrich complex in relation to AIDS".

Could you blame someone for having such a complex when fed a diet of horror photographs and occasionally selective journalism? Words like "victims" and "deadly virus" appeared in the article: a deceitful and irresponsible touch by either the journalist or sub-editor.

That said, McGarry's interview of a 27 year old gay man with full blown AIDS made for powerful reading and should be read by everyone. I congratulate McGarry who should have a word with the silly sub-editor responsible for the lousy introduction.

AIDS-related issues generally dominated the month's newspapers. The Evening Press (14 September) carried a piece on the free needle exchange for 200 drug users in New York city. I presume it was lifted from the wire services but found it well written and informative all the same.

Mr. Nicholas Kearns, Secretary of the AIDS Fund, was quoted in the Irish Times on the same day, urging a reform of the Unfair Dismissals Act and Equality Acts to prevent discrimination against HIV+ individuals in the workplace. Ireland has yet to move on the EC communique of February 1987 which urged Government action in relation to equal access to employment for healthy AIDS suffers and HIV+ people.

From the sublime to the ridiculous...

The Evening Press (16 September) filed a story from New York on Michael Jackson's reluctance about kissing the Blarney Stone, during his recent Irish visit, as he was afraid of getting "AIDS or something worse". Did it ever occur to Michael Jackson or his management that we wouldn't wish him to kiss the stone in the first place for fear of a deadly virus being passed onto the general public of this country? The virus in question being stupidity and ignorance. There's enough of it about already and it takes enormous patience to deal with this particular strain.

In the same paper on 21st September, the reporter Aindreas McEntee brought us a story about plans at University College Dublin to culture the "AIDS virus" at University College Dublin. Finance for the project will come from the AIDS fund. The article was culled from Irish Medical News which quoted Dr. Irene Hillary of UCD and didn't use terminology like the one used above by the Press. McEntee will you ever get it right?