“A Life lived in Fear, Is a Life Half-Lived…”

The South Bank HIVe

A CommUNITY-Based HIV/AIDS, Social Services & Survivors Support Network

315 W. 7th Street - Suite #2  *  Covington, Kentucky 41011-1391

859-261-HIVe1 (4481) * SoBankHIVe@zoomtown.com

World AIDS Day has a special place in the history of the AIDS pandemic. Since 1988 1st December has been a day bringing messages of compassion, hope, solidarity and understanding about AIDS to every country in the world, North and South, East and West.

The theme for world AIDS day is

“Educate, Commemorate, Understand,”

Commemorate, Educate and Remember

2003 World AIDS Day Observance

            As of June 30 of this year, 2,113 Kentuckians are living with AIDS. An estimated 42 million people worldwide are living with AIDS. These people still need access to medical care, counseling, educational services and legal advice.

            As of June 30 of this year, 1,835 Kentuckians had died of AIDS. It is the fifth leading cause of death for Americans ages 25-44. These people need to be remembered.

            In 2002, five million people worldwide acquired HIV. Half of those new infections occurred in people between the ages of 15 and 24. These people need to be educated.

            “Commemorate, Educate and Remember,” is the theme for the 2003 World AIDS Day Observance. A special service, featuring the Northern Kentucky Children’s Choir, will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 30, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 16 E. Fourth St. in Covington. A reception will follow. The service is open to the community, and will involve a number of local organizations, including: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, AIDS Volunteers of Northern Kentucky, Faith Communities HIV/AIDS Outreach, GLBTS Interfaith Clergy Network, and the Northern Kentucky Health Department.

            “The issues facing those of us who work with HIV/AIDS patients are changing,” said Clint Ibele, Health Educator with the Northern Kentucky Health Department. “People with the diseases are living longer, making HIV/AIDS more of a chronic disease. A 38-year-old male diagnosed today with HIV can expect to live within a few years of his normal life expectancy, as long as he follows a strict drug regimen and has no complications in his care. It may be 30 to 60 years before this man develops full-blown AIDS. In fact, it’s more likely that he will die of something other than AIDS.”

            In a report issued in October, the Kentucky HIV/AIDS Advisory Council presented four issues to the Kentucky legislature for the upcoming session. Paul Trickel, Senior HIV/AIDS Case Manager, represents the Health Department on this committee.

            “Our number one agenda item is to convince the state to begin confidential reporting of HIV cases,” Trickel said.

Currently, Kentucky law allows for anonymous reporting of HIV cases.  Under this system, cases are identified only by a unique identifying number, consisting of the patient’s initials, date of birth and social security number. A confidential reporting system would use the person’s full name.  Kentucky is one of only 12 states that does not use a confidential reporting system, and the state may lose federal funding if it does not move to a confidential reporting system.

            “There are two reasons for moving to a confidential reporting system,” Trickel said. “First, it would allow us to provide more current and accurate data to determine the true extent of HIV/AIDS in Kentucky. Currently, the funding that Kentucky receives for medical, social and legal services is based on the number of AIDS cases (which are reported confidentially). The 2002 reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act recommends that funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, education and services be based on the number of HIV and AIDS cases reported by a state. If Kentucky does not change to reporting HIV cases confidentially, we may lose considerable amounts of federal funding.”

            As a second issue, the HIV/AIDS Advisory Council recommended an increase in state funding for the Kentucky AIDS drug assistance program, in which individuals can receive HIV/AIDS medication at no cost, based on income. The program serves 700 people, but has a waiting list of about 160 patients. The state currently contributes $90,000 a year to the program, a rate that has not increased since 1996. The average cost for a patient’s medicine is $8,670 per year.

“We realize that state budgets are tight right now,” said Gary E. Crum, District Director of Health, “But, for each $90,000 that the state contributes to the drug assistance program, 10 more Kentuckians could have access to medicines.”

            The commission also made recommendations on the issues of needle exchange programs

and HIV/AIDS continuing education requirements for providers.

            Local students are also doing their part to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. In January, students at Simon Kenton High School in Independence will host a display of the National AIDS quilt at their school. The display will be open to the public from January 12-16.

            The Northern Kentucky Health Department’s HIV/AIDS program provides case management and outreach services to residents of eight counties—Boone, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen and Pendelton. Case management services include: assessment, crisis counseling, service coordination and referrals and financial assistance with rent, medication and insurance. The outreach program targets at-risk groups, provides HIV testing, participates in advocacy groups, and provides professional education. For more information, please call 859.578.7660.

#30#

November 21, 2003

UNAIDS World AIDS Campaign 2002-2003

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds along rocks.
-  Charlotte Bronte

"When dealing with people, let us remember we are not
dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with
creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices
and motivated by pride and vanity."  – Dale Carnegie

	Saluting World AIDS Day; Secretary-General deplores burden of HIV-related stigma.  Following is the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on World AIDS Day, 1 December. Date: Monday 18 November 2002   The worldwide HIV epidemic has created a terrible burden for millions of individuals, families and communities around the world. Relieving it requires improved health care, better access to treatments, more vigorous prevention efforts, more effective social outreach, and support for those most vulnerable - particularly orphans. But there is another terrible burden imposed by AIDS, which each and every one of us has the capacity to relieve: the burden of HIV-related stigma. The impact of stigma can be as detrimental as the virus itself. The solitude and lack of support it imposes are deeply wounding to those who suffer it. It should also hurt every one of us, for it is an affront to our common humanity. Some people with AIDS are being denied basic rights such as food or shelter, and dismissed from jobs they are perfectly fit to perform. They may be shunned by their community, or most tragic of all, by their own family. The fear of stigma leads to silence, and when it comes to fighting AIDS, silence is death. It suppresses public discussion about AIDS, and deters people from finding out whether they are infected. It can cause people - whether a mother breastfeeding her child or a sexual partner reluctant to disclose their HIV status - to risk transmitting HIV rather than attract suspicion that they might be infected. But the walls of stigma and silence are weakening. There is evidence of progress on every continent. Leaders are speaking out at the highest level. The rights of people living with HIV/AIDS are being defending through the courts. Standards are being set in the workplace. Schools, the media and youth education programmes are helping to created a generation better equipped to live in the world of AIDS. And last year, at a special session of the General Assembly, all the Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted a Assemble, all the Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS which sent a clear message around the world. They pledged to enact or enforce legislation outlawing discrimination against people living with HIV and members of vunerable groups. But whatever laws and regulations are adopted, the most powerful weapons against stigma and silence are the voices of the world's people speaking up about AIDS. By adopting the slogan "Live and Let Live", this year's World AIDS Campaign challenges us to ensure that all people, with or without HIV, can realise their human rights and live in dignity. On this World AIDS Day, let us resolve to replace stigma with support, fear with hope, silence with solidarity. Let us act on the understanding that this work begins with each and every one of us.

While HIV is not transmitted in the majority of workplace settings, the supposed risk of transmission has been used by numerous employers to terminate or refuse employment. There is also evidence that if people living with HIV/AIDS are open about their infection status at work, they may well experience stigmatisation and discrimination by others.

"Nobody will come near me, eat with me in the canteen, nobody will want to work with me, I am an outcast here".

(HIV positive man, aged 27,)

Pre-employment screening takes place in many industries, particularly in countries where the means for testing are available and affordable.

In poorer countries screening has also been reported as taking place, especially in industries where health benefits are available to employees. Employer-sponsored insurance schemes providing medical care and pensions for their workers have come under increasing pressure in countries that have been seriously affected by HIV and AIDS. Some employers have used this pressure to deny employment to people with HIV or AIDS.

"Though we do not have a policy so far, I can say that if at the time of recruitment there is a person with HIV, I will not take him. I' ll certainly not buy a problem for the company. I see recruitment as a buying-selling relationship. If I don't find the product attractive, I'll not buy it."

(The Head of Human Resource Development)

Follow Up

As I look back and review the coverage given by our local media (in particular the Sunday newspaper- The Enquirer) and the views they chose as representative of the community, it would seem to me that metro CincinNasty still thinks that "yes, well, it's all terribly sad, but..."...

"Self-control the real cure for AIDS"

"AIDS, Holocaust are not synonymous"

"Abstinence education is the only way to go"

December 1, 2002 AIDS Is Not a Death Sentence By WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON istorians will look back on our time and see that our civilization spends many millions of dollars educating people about the scourge of H.I.V. and AIDS, which has already taken 25 million lives and could infect 100 million people over the next eight years. But what they will find not so civilized is our failure to treat 95 percent of people with the disease. Given that medicine can turn AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic illness and reduce mother-to-child transmission, our withholding of treatment will appear to future historians as medieval, like bloodletting. Consider that there are close to six million people in the developing world with AIDS who should be getting treatment but are not. That does not account for the 36 million people around the world whose infections will need treatment in the next few years. Worldwide, 14,000 people are becoming infected with H.I.V. each day, and the number of people with H.I.V. or AIDS will more than double by 2010. To compound the horror, millions of children are born into the world carrying H.I.V. Without treatment, they, too, will sicken and die — but not before watching their parents die, leaving them orphaned. Confronted with these awful facts, we can offer the historians of the future our excuses: too many countries are still in denial about the scope of the problem and what has to be done about it; many countries lack the nationwide health infrastructure to treat such a disease; most countries don't have enough health-care personnel to run a complicated treatment program; the necessary drugs are expensive and unavailable to people in the poorest, hardest-hit countries. But those facts only serve to outline the extent of the problem. They do not justify our failure to recognize the moral and practical imperatives to mount a full-throttle treatment program in conjunction with ongoing education and prevention efforts. Some people argue that treatment is less important than prevention; a dollar spent on prevention, they say, goes further in slowing the spread of the disease than a dollar spent on treating someone who already has it. But this is a false choice. Prevention doesn't work unless large numbers of people agree to be tested. They won't agree to be tested if all they will learn is that they are going to die. They should be tested, of course, to save others. But they want to save their own lives, too. If we focus on treatment in addition to prevention, several good things would result. More people will stop suffering in silence and be willing to get tested for H.I.V. if we offer treatment that will prolong their lives and spare the lives of others. People who have the disease will live longer, healthier lives. This will make a big difference not only to them, but to businesses that will keep productive workers, governments that will spend less on caring for those with illnesses brought on by AIDS and children who won't become orphans. Perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of testing would be pregnant or new mothers, who can transmit H.I.V. to their babies in utero or through breast-feeding. If they test positive, they can receive new drugs that can reduce the chances of such transmissions by 50 percent and give life to a generation of children now in jeopardy. I know women will willingly undergo testing if it is accompanied by treatment. When I visited an AIDS clinic in Kigali, Rwanda in September, young women, many carrying infants, were literally lined up around the building waiting to be tested and, if necessary, treated with antiretroviral drugs. And as more people are inspired to be tested, more will receive potentially life-saving education about AIDS transmission, regardless of their current health. With a new generation coming of age every few years, the need for AIDS education remains high, and no amount of mass marketing can match the power of one-on-one advice — the kind that can be provided by the trained professionals at clinics where AIDS testing and treatment occur. These professionals can tell patients how not to spread the disease, if they have it, and how not to get the disease, if they don't. Through testing, we can also help end discrimination against people who acquire AIDS. This is in keeping with the theme of the 15th annual World AIDS Day, which is today: "Live and Let Live: Ending Stigma and Discrimination." The more that people understand that AIDS is not only a preventable disease but a treatable one, the less they will shun those who have it. And as more and more people are able to live with AIDS, their presence in families, workplaces and neighborhoods will help to reduce fears and misconceptions about the disease. Can treatment work? It has in Brazil, where virtually all AIDS patients are given access to life-saving, generic drugs manufactured in that country. According to a Ford Foundation report, by integrating its treatment and prevention programs, Brazil has saved $422 million a year, in part because the number of people hospitalized with H.I.V. or AIDS has fallen 75 percent over the past five years. Brazil's death rate from AIDS and related illnesses is down 50 percent, and the infection rate is low and getting lower. This success can be replicated across the globe. To promote the development of AIDS treatment programs in places where they are most needed, my foundation has begun signing agreements with developing nations, including Rwanda, Mozambique and the 15 states in the Caribbean Community. We are putting teams of expert volunteers in these countries to help governments and health-care institutions develop strategies to establish large-scale testing and treatment programs for their citizens. These are small, grass-roots efforts. But if they succeed, they will save many lives and provide a model to the rest of the world. And the International AIDS Trust, which I lead with Nelson Mandela, is helping to mobilize the resources and leadership needed to focus on treatment and wage a real war on AIDS. More must be done by governments, too, especially in answering the call of Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, for $10 billion to fight AIDS worldwide. Governments must also push pharmaceutical companies to make good on their commitments to provide drugs at discount prices or to stop trying to block the purchase of generic drugs by poor countries. Finally, they should also help developing countries to increase the supply of qualified health workers, because without them a treatment program is impossible. A lot is at stake. AIDS kills people in their most productive years. As a result, businesses in places where workers are sick and dying are losing a lot of money. And countries with large populations of people suffering with AIDS risk becoming unstable and susceptible to the forces of lawlessness, famine, terror and the demagogic appeals of dictators. Once the disease reaches epidemic proportions, it is much more difficult for a poor country to stabilize its democracy, grow its economy or emerge as a responsible partner in the global community. For all these reasons, we can and must do more to stop the spread of AIDS by doing more to treat people who already have it. Now that we have the medical capacity to save and improve the lives of millions of people, there is no other moral or practical choice. William Jefferson Clinton was the 42nd president. Copyright The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy

Somedays, Life in The HIVe's a Bitch!!!

My Stories - 1991 thru 2002

All the Colors,

in all the Flags and the Faces of All the

Nations, Causes, Countries, Cities, Counties, Corporations, Denominations, Monarchies, Municipalities, Papacys, Religions, Republics, States, Territories can only be found in one place on the Globe...

Greetings!

I logged these thoughts shortly before departing Wallace Woods and "The Holiday House"!

The Precedent: "The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as a reference for this Supreme Court decision: "Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes the actual physical one.

This is the essence of discrimination - formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics."

In many ways, I consider that I died and have been a dead man walking since October 3, 1991.  Most assuredly since October 10th, when Perkins learned my status and "constructively discharged" me.

"He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured."
... an Ethiopian Proverb

"Community in Search of an Identity"

By Mary Fisher

    Flying back to New England yesterday was interesting. I've always loved this part of the country and have enjoyed splendid times here. My husband, Brian, and I met and lived in New York. Brian died in 1993 and is buried in New England. It was in New England that I first met Larry Kramer, the founder of ACT-UP, who has since become a great friend. Larry is one of the nation's finest playwrights, and he never fails to make me laugh. I was standing on a stage in New England, substituting for Arthur Ashe who wasn't feeling well, when the announcement came that Arthur had died. I let my mind review all those moments yesterday, flying from Florida where my sons and I moved recently to be nearer family. New England is important territory to me, and you're important people.

    I want to talk this morning about what it takes to create a community, because I believe the idea of an "AIDS community" is mostly a myth. There is no such beast. Some of us have AIDS; some of us enjoy community. But we'd be hard-pressed to give any kind of definition or meaning to the idea of an "AIDS community." And it's too bad this is true. If ever there was a group in need of community, it's the group represented here this morning: people with AIDS and those who care about us. We would be a community full of suffering and stigma, but also a community full of humor and power. We could be an international community, because the virus has made us so; we could be a supportive community... if we would make us so. The virus has done a marvelous job of finding those who are Black and White, gay and straight, young and old, male and female, African and American. But we've not yet learned to imitate the virus's ability to enroll everyone in a single community...

http://www.hivcouncil.org/mary_fisher.htm

Once you find out you are positive you have one of two choices, either get busy dying or get busy living, which would you chose?  [hiv-aids-support] @ Yahoo Groups

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hiv-aids-support

U.S. Warned Against AIDS Complacency
Sun Jul 7, 2002

By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - The United States must revive the passion it once had for tackling the AIDS epidemic, otherwise infection rates could start climbing again, the U.S. AIDS prevention chief said Sunday.

From "The NAMES Project Foundation":

AIDS Is NOT Over Dear Media Member:

As representatives of the foremost U.S. AIDS service organizations, we urge you to consider carefully the following key points regarding the AIDS epidemic in 1997.

The past year has brought the most exciting advances in the treatment of HIV and AIDS since the epidemic began in 1981. As you know, dramatic improvements in drug therapies have translated directly into prolonged life spans for many people with HIV and AIDS. For the first time, deaths from AIDS in the United States dropped 13% across the country over the first half of last year. Indeed, new drug therapies such as the protease inhibitors have enabled many people with AIDS who once were wasting and bedridden to reclaim their lives, regain their health, and re-enter the workforce.

However, the hope felt by those of us battling AIDS is countered by new challenges. While effective combinations of protease inhibitors have thrown a lifeboat to many people with AIDS, we are still navigating through rough waters. The drugs' effectiveness and tolerability vary widely among people, and their extreme expense puts them out of reach for the vast majority of people with HIV. In fact, it is estimated that a mere 5% of all people with HIV have access to them. Even more importantly, protease inhibitors do not prevent a single HIV infection, and media messages hailing the imminent end of AIDS may actually be undermining some HIV prevention efforts. The end of AIDS will come only when an effective AIDS vaccine is developed, and the slow rate of progress in this difficult area of research will not bear fruit until well into the next century.

As representatives of the foremost U.S. AIDS service organizations, we urge you to consider carefully the following key points regarding the AIDS epidemic in 1997.

Access to the new drug therapies is the basic problem for many people with HIV. To be truly effective, protease inhibitors must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs. Annual costs for this treatment average about $15,000 per person. Without private health insurance, Americans must rely on public programs such as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), a federally funded initiative to provide AIDS-related drugs to people with HIV. Most ADAPs (which are administered by states) currently are so strapped for cash that they're being forced to ration the drugs among their applicants. Inadequate federal funding of these programs is financially illogical, as the new drug therapies have been scientifically proven to reduce healthcare costs and hospitalizations among people with HIV.

When HIV-positive people actually get their hands on these therapies, a new set of concerns arises. First, will they be effective? Experts estimate that up to 30% of patients will not respond to treatment. After years of treatment with older anti-HIV drugs, their viruses may have resistant mutations that render the newer drugs useless. Second, if they do actually reduce the amount of virus in the patient's bloodstream, will he or she be able to weather the drug's sometimes crippling side effects? Protease inhibitors, for many people, are intolerable because of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, kidney  stones and serious drug interactions with other medications. In fact, anywhere from 1 in 100 to 1 in 1000 patients taking protease inhibitors may be at risk for developing diabetes or hyperglycemia from treatment with these drugs, according to an advisory released by the Food and Drug Administration on June 11, 1997.

A final problem with these new treatments is understanding the best way to use them. Four protease inhibitors join seven other antiviral drugs to stock our arsenal against HIV. These therapies must be used in combination to be truly effective and to avoid drug resistance. With so many permutations at our fingertips, we don't yet understand which combination is the best, or when that combination should be initiated in the course of someone's disease. These uncertainties will only be ironed out by further clinical trials. Enlisting a physician  who's informed of the latest research in this area is a life-and-death matter for people with HIV.

HIV-positive individuals who had a doctor experienced in the nuances of HIV treatments had a 31% lower risk of death than patients whose physicians were the least AIDS-experienced, according to a 1996 University of Washington study.

Protease inhibitors do not prevent new HIV infections.

Despite the exciting advances in treatments, new HIV infections remain relatively steady at 40,000-50,000 Americans per year, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the epidemic is losing its gay, white male face more and more every year. Increasingly, the faces are those of women, youth and people of color, and unfortunately it is these groups of people that have the least access to quality medical care. These changing demographic trends demand that we tailor new HIV prevention programs to better serve groups at increased risk. Some of the facts on where the epidemic is moving:

*AIDS is now the leading cause of death among African Americans. Black men are almost six times more likely to get infected compared to white men, and black women are 16 times more likely to get infected than white women.

*Fifty-two percent of AIDS cases occurred among African Americans and Latinos, yet these two population groups    represent an estimated 13% and 10%, respectfully, of the total U.S. population.

*Half of all HIV infections happen among individuals who are 25 or younger, and one in four happen among individuals 20 or younger.

*HIV is spreading almost six times as quickly among women as among men.

*Elsewhere in the world, the situation is far worse. Last year, almost 3 million people around the world were infected with HIV. Most of them were under age 25, and half of them were women. 400,000 new HIV infections occurred among children.

*Protease inhibitors are doing nothing to curb this rising tide of new HIV infections. In fact, these new therapies may be exacerbating the situation. Media reports of AIDS becoming a chronic manageable illness, and whispers of possible viral eradication, may lead some people to become less vigilant with safer sex and safer injection practices. Some liken protease inhibitors to the "morning after pill."  Indeed, San Francisco has become the first city in the United States to offer a controversial "post-exposure HIV clinic," in which patients     who've had unprotected sex or shared needles to inject drugs will receive immediate antiviral therapy in an attempt to prevent HIV from "taking hold" in the body during these first few critical hours of HIV infection. It is yet to be seen what the consequences of this program will have on the behavior of individuals in the community.

*As an example, through its National High School Quilt Program, in 1997 the NAMES Project Foundation is taking the AIDS Memorial Quilt to three high schools in every U.S. state. The Quilt serves as the centerpiece of a week of HIV prevention activities for high school-aged youth, and serves as a catalyst for discussion of AIDS and its related issues.  Nearly 90% of students surveyed said they would take steps to avoid HIV infection as a result of seeing the Quilt.

*To meet the needs of women with HIV-and help head off the spread of HIV among women-New York City's Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in late 1996 launched its Department of Women's Education Services. In addition to safer-sex workshops for women previously sponsored by GMHC, the department also will hold a series of community forums, collaborate with other community-based organizations in the creation of new support groups, and coordinate agency-wide services for women to better serve its female clients.

*With HIV infection rates on the rise among youth ages 14-20 in the Seattle/King County, Washington area, the Northwest AIDS Foundation has launched Project ACTION to address this disturbing trend. The program works with local business to install low-cost condom vending machines in locations frequented by youth. In addition to condom vending, the project also focuses on community mobilization, media and peer education. The goals of Project ACTION are to make condoms readily accessible to sexually active youth, create a strong health promotion message, and train youth to conduct workshops that teach HIV prevention, abstinence and gotiation and refusal skills to delay the onset of sexual activity.

..."

U.S. AIDS cases and HIV infections have remained fairly stable since 1998 at
about 10,000 new infections every three months, but that overall stability may
mask reported increases in HIV infections among heterosexuals, said Dr. Ronald
Valdiserri, deputy director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB
Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 1 million Americans are infected with HIV, which causes AIDS.

The lack of additional progress against the virus likely stems from several
factors, including the large number of infected people who either do not know
they have the virus or are not getting treatment.

"Today's epidemic is very different from the one we faced a decade ago. The
populations at risk, the attitudes about infection and the science of HIV have
all changed. And so must our prevention efforts," said Valdiserri, who
presented new research at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona.

More than 15,000 people from around the world have gathered here for the
weeklong 14th International AIDS Conference, looking for solutions to an
epidemic infecting 40 million people worldwide, more than half of them in
Africa.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the U.N. AIDS program, said Sunday there
was no indication the epidemic is leveling off worldwide, and strategies known
to prevent its spread still are grossly underused.

Scientific discoveries in HIV and AIDS also seem to be merely incremental,
experts said. New drugs that do the same thing — but slightly better — are
emerging, but there's no vaccine or blockbuster treatment around the corner.

Making more progress against HIV will require getting more people tested and
treated early in their infection, and developing drugs that work better and are
simpler to take, Valdiserri and other experts said.

However, the ultimate goal is to prevent infections from occurring in the first
place.

Valdiserri presented research on new HIV infections in 25 states to provide a
snapshot of the situation in the United States. There is no national HIV
surveillance program, so complete nationwide figures do not exist.

The 25 states exclude California, New York and Florida and account for only one
quarter of the HIV infections nationwide, he said.

Because 13- to 24-year-olds are more likely to have been recently infected,
trends in this age group are a more accurate indicator of recent HIV infection
patterns, Valdiserri said. Diagnoses among that group remained somewhat stable throughout 1994 to 2000.

"This seeming stability may not tell the whole story," Valdiserri said.

When the researchers examined the statistics by risk group instead of age
group, a different picture emerged.

"There have been slow but steady increases among heterosexuals, with diagnoses
increasing 10 percent between 1998 and 2000," he said.

The majority of those infections — 75 percent — were in black Americans, with
black women accounting for almost half the cases among heterosexuals between
1994 and 2000.

While Latin Americans account for a low proportion of HIV cases in the 25
states studied, at a national level they are disproportionately affected.

The first step to making progress now is to recognize that the HIV epidemic is
different today than it used to be, Valdiserri said.

There is a growing group of people infected with HIV who face a lifetime of
maintaining safe sexual practices. Those people are living longer, healthier
lives thanks to new treatments, and they continue having sex.

Valdiserri said research suggests that almost 70 percent of people recently
diagnosed with HIV report being sexually active within the last year. Between
57 and 75 percent said they used a condom the last time they had sex.

For those without the disease, the growing pool of HIV infections means a
greater chance of becoming infected and an even greater need to protect
themselves, Valdiserri said.

"Americans ... don't have the same sense of urgency or crisis which
characterized the early years of the epidemic," Valdiserri said. "Some are
becoming bored with HIV after 20 years, some are simply tired of the messages
and behavior change. And many didn't realize they were signing on for a
lifetime of condom use."

Many people speak of complacency now that HIV is treatable, and some even are
skeptical that further progress can be made in the United States, Valdiserri
said.

"We can't sit back and wait for a vaccine. Instead, we must renew HIV
prevention in the United States," he said.

"We must revive the passion with which the U.S. once faced the HIV epidemic,
with a strong and pre-eminent focus on preventing the spread of the virus."