UCI Forum Sees Progress in AIDS Fight

A panel of local AIDS activists said Saturday that the fight against the spread of the deadly virus in Orange County has been effective despite a general lack of commitment by the conservative county legislative delegation.

“I am just amazed at how far we have come in Orange County,” Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry said during a panel discussion at UC Irvine on political responses to acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

“We had legislators who came out early on who took an anti-AIDS stance” because of a tendency to link AIDS with gay issues, Gentry said.

The afternoon panel discussion was part of a series of workshops in the UCI Student Center that capped the first Bren Symposium. The symposiums began through a grant from the Irvine Co. as part of the university’s yearlong 25th-anniversary celebration. The sessions are named after the Irvine Co. chairman, Donald L. Bren.

Researchers and university leaders from as far away as London attended the all-day symposium on the historical and social perspectives of the AIDS virus, which has been detected in 142,426 people in the United States, the latest U.S. government figures indicate.

In Orange County, about 1,600 people have contracted the disease, which is mainly transmitted through sexual intercourse, blood transfusions or intravenous drug use. In addition, a growing number of children are being born infected via mothers who developed AIDS antibodies before pregnancy.

Also discussed during the workshops were the cultural diversity of AIDS victims, the educational system, experimental and future therapies, and volunteerism in the health care industry.

During the discussion of local political approaches to the worldwide epidemic, several panelists blasted most of the county’s lawmakers, saying they ignored the disease when legislators in other state metropolitan areas were voting for anti-AIDS programs and funding bills.

“One thing Orange County has not had, unlike other counties, is effective political leadership,” said Anaheim-based lawyer John J. Duran, a member of LIFE Lobby, a gay lobbying group.

Consequently, he said, various private organizations and county agencies have stepped in to raise awareness and educate the public.

“We’re seeing people take responsibility in the political vacuum,” Duran said.

Orange County ranks behind Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego counties in the per-capita incidence of AIDS, said Orange County Health Care Agency Director L. Rex Ehling.

He said that, unlike in the state in general, minority AIDS victims in Orange County do not make up a disproportionately large ratio of the overall number of victims. For instance, he said, although Latinos make up about 12% of the county’s population, they account for slightly more than 9% of AIDS victims.

Orange County Health Care Agency spokesman Raoul Magana, who moderated a discussion on the cultural diversity of AIDS victims, said an aggressive public relations campaign aimed at the county’s large Latino community has helped slow the pace of infection.