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

August being the silly season I was not surprised to open U Magazine and find on the Letters Page a Co. Longford person called "Commonsense" (a rather defensive touch I thought) exhorting readers to say "No" as the only "safe and sure way to avoid catching this dreadful disease". The writer was of course talking about AIDS and felt there was something "pathetic about the naivete or childishness of those people who believe that the use of condoms will guard a person from catching AIDS" stressing the unscientific basis of "propaganda" about condom use. Commonsense reaches the part most condoms don't, it seems!

The Irish Times on August 9th had a chilling item for any of us seeking life assurance; the message from the Irish Insurance Federation is that under new guidelines anyone but especially men i the 25-50 age group seeking life assurance for large sums will have to undergo a HIV test. Individuals testing positive will be refused cover. The article also informs us that all life assurance forms now include questions "to identify applications who may be HIV positive, suffering from AIDS or in the so-called high-risk groups of drug users, homosexuals and bisexuals. The industry insists these safeguards are needed to protect its solvency..."