European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 19, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Seniors in san Franeis eos seedy tenderloin District by Larry Ryckman associated press in a hotel room crowded with Pink chairs and Pink 81yearold Alejandra Munoz talks about the criminals on the streets of san Francisco seedy tenderloin she tells How she once was terrified to venture outside her even to buy groceries in the neighbourhood of cheap rated movie flophouse and winos in the heart of the when i first came i didst know Munoz tucking her hair under a Pink i was very i was somewhat like a Turtle i never came out of my Many of the tenderloin districts elderly residents escape through like hide behind locked doors in the cheap hotels lining the districts 45 City afraid to Cash social Security checks or go to the but their lot is volunteers from the tenderloin senior outreach project coaxed Munoz and dozens of other elderly residents from their hotel rooms with the offer of free doughnuts and blood pressure the seniors came for the but they left with much in these  there is a very High rate of social says Meredith Mink an associate professor at the University of Californi Berkeley and a founder of an estimated 20 percent of the people never leave their so just getting them out of their rooms for blood pressure screening was a major we knew they were coming for the they began the food would be and they would still be interested in talking to each top is a privately run program begun in 1979 As a Public health project by three of my Klers students who encouraged seniors to organize Small support groups to help elderly residents help each about 150 seniors meet in seven tenderloin hotel lobbies to Swap stories and Wrangle with ways to Deal with grocery shopping and i have friends says Pius motioning toward a group of people at the Alexander we have a Little Community Here its like a Small it  be there without they Are like the face of were alive in the presence of these Minkler says Many of the elderly residents of the neighbourhood have lost Contact with families or have families in Distant parts of the the majority of them dont have their own there Cut off from the routine kinds of interaction that Many other people what top is doing is developing a sense of connection within ones they now feel better about people in the there beginning to see that indeed Many of the people in the hotel Are Good people just like them who have something to offer and Are Worth getting to the seniors first concern was with guidance from top they created Safe houses where scared or injured residents can go in an the seniors persuaded 48 lat night grocery stores and other neighbourhood businesses to put signs in their windows that display the Safe House Emblem a Dove perched in the safety of its seniors can Call authorities or wait until the streets outside Are a lot of them have been some of them three and four times in a usually trying to Cash a social Security Minkler a number of them said they Felt safer just knowing those Safe houses were the seniors also persuaded police to put More beat cops in the a move that has forged friendships Between elderly residents and Young they have become very close to the Minkler Treyve come in on their Days off to associated press photos 3 take them fishing and to do things of that there just a very important part of the elderly authorities give top much of the credit for a reduction in crime in the i dont think there is that same widespread concern and fear of crime that there was three or four years says Rotea the mayors Deputy for criminal hunger was the next problem to eighty percent of the elderly people living in the tenderloin Are undernourished or Minkler the seniors decided to open mini markets once a week inside some of the hotels to sell Low Cost fruit and vegetables to those either unable or too scared to do their own it gives us a Chance to buy food that is we Are weak and we cannot always go to the says who has lived in the tenderloin six they Lack Access to fresh fruit because the major chains moved out years ago and the Corner groceries Are Minkler nutritionist Lisa assistant director of top and one of two full time staff said hunger is a tremendous problem in the a lot of people Only eat one meal a she for its not that there not getting enough food there not getting the right kinds of the stack of canned food outside tops modest office on the second floor of a Myca has been like its budget and the time of 12 Volunteer top also provides seniors an outlet for their Talent and Energy and boosts their top director Robin Wechsler instead of seniors begin to feel like our society has a nifty Little Way of giving you very negative messages if you Are she if you Are old you dont feel that but theres a double whammy if youre old and if youre the residents of san Francisco tenderloin District an 81yearold Man named Jack in his hotel above taking the air on Street right and octogenarian Alejandra with photo of mayor Dianne fight against to faltering by Walter Sullivan new York times the Battle against tuberculosis seems to be according to a report by the National Center for disease control in Atlanta and newly published when drugs effective against tuberculosis were introduced in the United states Over 35 years ago More than new cases were being reported each year and there were the drugs led to Hope that the disease could be rapidly yet As the cd there Are still new cases reported and americans die of the disease every Many More victims Are thought to go particularly among the in surveys have revealed a surprisingly High incidence in nursing Homes and some of the larger infectious cases Are also passing the disease onto infants As is evident in the occurrence of hundreds of cases in those less than five years of the analysis by the Atlanta Agency in its weekly morbidity and mortality said that unless the slow decline in new infections can be accelerated the disease is not Likely to disappear before the year Only through such measures As better use of existing methods of prevention and plus development of new techniques in those is there any Hope of eradicating the disease in this it tuberculosis was once the leading cause of death in the United while it has responded Well to such drugs As streptomycin and some strains of the tuberculosis Bacillus have developed a resistance to those but not in populations from and Central and South specialists from Federal and local agencies met in in june to consider new strategies and new techniques that might achieve eradication by the year As noted by Rosalyn Yalow of the veterans administration Hospital in the Winner of a Nobel prize for her role in developing immunity one of her Eugene has developed a direct Way to detect tuberculosis bacteria in a the Standard test is for the presence of antibodies formed by the body in response to which does not prove that infection currently Alan Bloch of the Center for disease control said tests of sputum for evidence of infection now take three to six evidence for a surprisingly High incidence of tuberculosis in nursing Homes has been presented by William Stead of the Arkansas department of an authority on and his colleagues in the new England journal of it they that the rather frequent occurrence of tuberculosis in nursing Homes has hitherto escaped among other supposed reasons for the infection Are crowded living conditions and the reactivation of dormant infections acquired in according to the Center for disease from 10 million to 15 million americans carry the tuberculosis bacterium in latent the cd also found while reported cases in the United states have continued to thanks to such drugs As they have done so far More slowly in the elderly than in younger among tuberculosis patients of All Ages the percentage of patients Over 65 Rose from in 1960 to in Many of the cases apparently Are never properly 14 the stars and 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