PIP: What is most alarming about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in East Africa is that it is taboo. The reason for the clamping down on publicity in Kenya is that the government sees AIDS as a killer of tourism, the country's 2nd largest revenue earner. The government of Kenya, like several other African governments, is reacting to the widespread belief in the West that AIDS originated in Africa and that it is rampant in Central and East Africa. These "facts" have yet to be proven conclusively by medical evidence. It is certain that a large percentage of the population of these regions have antibodies to the virus HTLV-III, which causes AIDS. From this, virologists deduce that the people concerned must have been exposed to the AIDS virus. The Western media has exaggerated the African AIDS connection and given the impression that African countries are gripped in raging AIDS epidemics. In response to the alarmist publicity, some African countries have clamped down in information about the disease. The result is that the Western press feels confirmed in its fears and the local population, depending on rumor and heresay, have been living in a state of absolute panic. Instead of allaying fears, the clampdown on news has fueled dangerous rumors at home and frightened away tourists. Whatever may be causing the disease and wherever it may have come from, there is no question at all that there are now confirmed cases of AIDS in East and Central Africa. Thus far, the number of confirmed cases if relatively small, but if governments continue to try and hide the facts from the public, there is a real danger of an epidemic developing. A ministerial statement admits to 7 confirmed AIDS cases in Kenya. There are discrepancies in the reports, however. Doctors interviewed by "New African" in Nairobi recently believe the situation is far more serious than the government admits. Doctors in Kenya make the point that the country is highly vulnerable to the spread of AIDS, particularly as it is known to be transmitted in heterosexual as well as homosexual relationships. Medical experts in Kenya identify the need for an AIDS Researh Foundation to be set up to encompass the whole of the East Africa region. This center would receive and collate information on AIDS from Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, assess it, carry out clinical research, study and experiment with anti-AIDS compounds, and formulate a public education program to be disseminated by the media. 2 points need to be known: it is difficult to contract AIDS casually; through blood and semen, carriers of the virus can transmit AIDS like wildfire creating an epidemic.