County AIDS Death Toll Placed at 130 Over 9-Year Period

In the past nine years, 194 people in Ventura County have been diagnosed with AIDS. Of those, 130 have died.

The grim statistics were revealed Tuesday by Diane Seyl, the county’s AIDS coordinator, as the Board of Supervisors signed a resolution proclaiming October AIDS Awareness Month.

In conjunction with national efforts to recognize the disease, Seyl is helping coordinate area events this month that are designed to inform people about AIDS and its prevention.

The highlight of the activities is a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Saturday in Plaza Park in Ventura. Music will be performed, and speakers will talk about AIDS.

Seyl said the number of people diagnosed with the disease in the county has climbed steadily since health officials began keeping count in 1981.

But the surge of AIDS cases expected in the mid-1980s never materialized, Seyl said. She said that might be due partly to the introduction of the drug AZT, used to treat people who have tested positive for AIDS but have not come down with the disease.

But, Seyl said, “We’re seeing an increased number of people infected with the AIDS virus.”

At the four county testing sites--Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Santa Paula--12 people tested positive for the HIV virus in 1989. From January through July this year, 16 people have tested positive at those sites.

It could not be immediately determined how many people diagnosed by private physicians have tested positive since January, 1989.

Seyl is seeing some other changes too. “We’re seeing more and more families,” she said. It’s not unusual, she said, for whole families to test positive for the virus.

Last year, seven children in the county had tested positive for the virus, although none had come down with the disease. So far this year, seven women have been diagnosed with the disease.

Gay and bisexual men and intravenous drug users, however, still make up the largest percentage of those with the disease in the county, she said. Of those diagnosed with AIDS, 68% are gay or bisexual men, 7% are intravenous drug users and 10% fall into both categories. The heterosexual rate is 4%.

Seyl said 147 people who were already living in the county have been diagnosed with the disease since 1981. And another 47 people diagnosed elsewhere with the disease have moved into the county, she said.

Seyl said activities planned this month target teen-agers who need to know about safe-sex practices. A presentation on AIDS is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center. A similar program is scheduled Oct. 24 at the Boys and Girls Club of Port Hueneme at 5:30 p.m.

Another target, Seyl said, is the Latino community. An AIDS information session is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Monday at El Concilio in Oxnard. A session for gay and bisexual men will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 15 at at the county public health building in Ventura.