HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

Scientists who study AIDS and other STDs say federal health officials have warned them that their work may come under unusual scrutiny by the Department of Health and Human Services or members of Congress if its topics are politically controversial. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the scientists say they have been advised they can avoid unfavorable attention by keeping certain "key words" out of grant applications to the National Institutes of Health and CDC. Those words include "sex worker," "men who sleep with men," "anal sex" and "needle exchange," the scientists said.

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HHS spokesperson Bill Pierce said the department does not screen grant applications for politically delicate content. But an NIH official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said NIH project officers, who work with grant applicants and recipients, were telling researchers to avoid so-called sensitive language.

Dr. Alfred Sommer, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, said a researcher at the institution had been advised by an NIH project officer to change the term "sex worker" to something more euphemistic in a grant proposal about HIV prevention among prostitutes. The idea that grants might be subject to political surveillance

is creating a "pernicious sense of insecurity" among researchers, Sommers said.

A University of California researcher said an NIH project officer told him his application "should be 'cleansed' and should not contain any contentious wording like 'gay' or 'homosexual' or 'transgender.'"

Editor's Note: from the New York Times