Behavior Changes Lower County AIDS Figures

The AIDS epidemic in Orange County is not growing because the community is acting more responsibly, county epidemiologist Thomas Pendergast told an audience of 850 Roman Catholic teachers, priests and community leaders Friday.

Pendergast was the main speaker at a daylong session on acquired immune deficiency syndrome and Catholicism, organized by the Diocese of Orange. Classes were called off in all of the county’s Catholic elementary schools so teachers could attend the symposium at Servite High School in Anaheim.

“AIDS spread widely throughout the U.S. before we could really realize what was going on,” Pendergast said, “and it will continue because the incubation period is long.”

But, he added, there are signs that people in the county have taken “the necessary steps to reduce substantially” the spread of the deadly virus.

He cited county studies showing that while 25% of gay and bisexual people tested three years ago had the antibodies of the AIDS virus, the percentage has since dropped to 18% to 20%.

Among intravenous drug users and the general population, the percentage of people testing positive has also leveled off or dropped, he added.

Citing statistics collected at methadone clinics, women’s jails and county test sites, Pendergast said intravenous drug users continue to test positive at a rate of about 3%, which is similar to the 1985 percentage.

And data collected in the county by the Red Cross shows that the rate of infection among the general population is declining.

“Three years ago, about 40 per 100,000 tested positive,” Pendergast said. Now, “less than 10 per 100,000 test positive. We’ve even gone four to five months without any positives.”

Father Michael Heher, director of the Diocese of Orange Office of Family Life, called for a deeper involvement of the Catholic community in the fight against AIDS.

Organizers also distributed a statement from the Most Rev. Norman F. McFarland, bishop of Orange, reminding those in attendance that the church opposes the use of condoms as a safeguard against AIDS, an option that Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and most AIDS prevention groups endorse.