Commentary : Straight Thinking About AIDS

I am a woman, a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a nurse. After a recent lecture to school nurses, I was approached by several people with questions. In the periphery was a pale, thin but attractive young brunette. After the questions were answered, she approached me asking to speak with me privately. Jane (not her real name) began her question with “I have a friend.” It didn’t take long to see the tears in her eyes were not for a friend.

Her story was a sad one and I felt my eyes begin to moisten. Jane had been married for a couple of years when six months ago her husband asked for a divorce. Not an unusual story, but the difference was that Jane’s husband was bisexual. A bruised ego was not the only pain that Jane was suffering. She was terrified that she had been infected with the AIDS virus. Her weight had dropped by 30 pounds, and whether from fear or infection was Jane’s real problem.

I asked her if she had been tested for the antibody to HTLV-III (a test used to determine if she had been infected by the virus). Her reply was “No, I don’t live in California and there is no anonymous testing in my state. I’m afraid that I’ll lose my job as a school nurse if I’m positive.”

I referred Jane to a local anonymous testing site for counseling and testing. I wish I could tell you she was negative but neither I nor anyone will know since the test is anonymous and confidential. I do feel sure that the counseling will give her some emotional support.

This is just one of many situations that I came across in my daily activities. As an infection control practitioner, I teach and consult on AIDS as well as other infectious diseases, but no other disease has caused the emotional upheaval that AIDS has.

I am involved with AIDS because I believe that we are facing a crisis that the majority of the general public is ignoring because it doesn’t affect them personally.

What about you? Have you been reading about AIDS or is it one of those irrelevant issues in your life? If you aren’t a member of a risk group, such as a gay or bisexual man, intravenous drug abuser or hemophiliac, you have probably ignored or skimmed over the articles. Wait, don’t stop reading now. This disease may not affect you or anyone you know today--but it will in the near or not-so-near future.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a disease caused by a virus, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Now viruses are smart creatures but they don’t discriminate. They infect black and white, male and female, gay and straight. Somehow, because the virus first appeared in the gay community in the United States, a strange attitude has developed. I can understand that a disease that is almost universally fatal (people with AIDS live about 13 months) is a terrifying threat but let us look at this disease with an objective eye.

First of all, I believe in going to the experts when you want the real truth. So let us see what the Public Health Department Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says about AIDS:

“AIDS is a blood-borne, sexually transmitted disease that is not spread by casual contact.” What does that mean? It means that I can go to eat in a restaurant and not be afraid of catching AIDS from a person serving food. It means I can’t get the disease from being in the same room or shaking hands with someone with the virus. Toilet seats and door knobs are not the way the disease is spread. We also know that mosquitoes do not carry the disease. There is no evidence that working or living with someone infected with AIDS can give you the disease unless you have sexual contact or blood-to-blood contact.

Do you donate blood? It really is a special gift. The rumors you’ve heard about getting AIDS from donating blood are absolutely untrue. All the collection equipment is sterile and never reused. What about receiving blood? The Red Cross and all blood centers test every unit for evidence of infection with the virus, and all donors are questioned about their life style to eliminate those who may carry the virus, so receiving blood is not a high-risk procedure.

I have several friends and acquaintances that have AIDS or some form of the virus. I have seen the devastation that can occur with AIDS--the weight loss, the shortness of breath, the confusion and the ugly blotches of Kaposi’s sarcoma (a form of cancer seen in AIDS patients). The physical symptoms are bad enough but what is sometimes even worse is the loss of the things we hold dear--our friends, families, lovers, jobs, independence, insurance and even a place to live. To be shunned or treated like a leper is not uncommon for the unfortunate individuals with AIDS. Self-image and self-worth are often destroyed by cruel or ignorant people.

I am not asking you to take someone with AIDS into your home, (if you are interested, let me know) but I challenge you to learn more about this disease. (The Orange County Health Planning Council is concerned about the myths and misconceptions surrounding this disease and is holding a community forum on AIDS on Wednesday evening at the Visiting Nurse Assn. Conference Room, 1337 Braden Court in Orange.)

Don’t sit back and say it can’t happen to me or anyone I know because it can--and probably will. At this time there have been 262 cases of AIDS and 633 cases of other forms of the HIV virus in Orange County. By 1990 it is predicted that there will be 1,425 cases of AIDS in the county and at least three times as many cases of other forms of the virus.

I challenge you to make sure that any sexually active family member or friend is aware of the hazards of unsafe sex and of having multiple sexual partners. Yes, even the heterosexuals.

I challenge you to educate yourself and others about the risks of intravenous drug abuse, especially your teen-agers who are at the age where experimenting is “cool.” And I challenge you to find out the truth about the LaRouche-backed initiative, Proposition 64, on the November ballot. I think this proposition will do irreversible damage to the efforts to control AIDS in Orange County.