California: State Treatment Activist Meeting May 4,5; Prison, Funding Demos Sacramento May 6 and 7

ACT UP/Golden Gate will host a statewide activist conference in San Francisco on May 4 and 5. Demonstrations are planned for Sacramento on the following two days, May 6 and 7. Saturday's meeting will address treatment issues (both State and Federal), while Sunday's will focus on California.

Issues include:

* Building coalitions with other disease activist groups.

* California's successful AIDS research program -- the only one in the country -- and the proposal for patient advocates to have input into this program.

* Improving California's Food and Drug Branch (FDB), which could approve trials or even drug marketing in California.

* Faster development and approval of new antivirals, on both Federal and State levels.

* Improving the State's AIDS Drug Program, which provides drugs to people who could not otherwise afford them.

* Providing adequate medical care for prisoners.

The Sacramento demonstrations will focus on medical care for prisoners with HIV (May 6), and the AIDS Drug Program (May 7).

All the issues are of course affected by the State's budget crisis.

For more information about the conference and demonstrations, call ACT UP/Golden Gate at 415/252- 9200, or come to the meetings in San Francisco every Tuesday evening (General Body), Wednesday evening (Treatment Issues), or other committees at various times throughout the week.