AIDS report faults national leaders.

The National Commission on AIDS last week urged President Bush and other U.S. government leaders to make the AIDS epidemic a high priority. "The lack of government leadership in the epidemic is everywhere evident," the 12 panelists charge. They call on Bush to establish a comprehensive national plan aimed at preventing HIV transmission.

Since 1981, the panel notes, 120,000 people in the United States have died of AIDS. The group predicts that the cumulative AIDS death toll will reach 350,000 by the end of 1993, and that the disease will increasingly strike entire families.

Panelists also note that experimental treatment may provide crucial help for people infected with this tricky virus. The commission recommends including more women and minority members with AIDS in drug trials funded by the National Institute of Health. In addition, they say, the Food and Drug Administration should "aggressively pursue" options for dissemination of promising experimental AIDS therapies.