More Funds Sought for AIDS Study : Politicians: Orange County officials say Laker star’s announcement will increase public’s awareness, spur research.

Stunned by news that Lakers star Earvin (Magic) Johnson has tested positive for the AIDS virus, Orange County elected officials predicted Friday that this would spur efforts to increase AIDS research and education.

“This will provide a searchlight of intensity focused on the problem of AIDS, and to that extent, there is a silver lining to the tragedy that has befallen Magic Johnson,” said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach).

Cox called for an increase in federal dollars for AIDS research, which totaled about $1.7 billion in 1990 compared to about $1.6 billion for cancer and $1.1 billion for heart disease.

“I am certain that we can re-prioritize amounts in the current (federal) budget without breaking existing spending caps,” Cox said.

In California, meanwhile, the state’s financial crisis is so great that AIDS dollars have been cut, not increased, said state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach).

Bergeson said, however, that the recent passage of legislation requiring AIDS education in junior and senior high schools will help to increase public knowledge of the disease and emphasize the fact that it can happen to anyone.

“There is nothing quite so deadly or so preventable as this killer disease,” Bergeson said. “(Magic Johnson) is to be commended (for) taking the responsibility as someone who is beloved by all and very much an idol of young people to share this with the public.”

Bergeson said more money for research is needed, but that for now the best the state can do is to encourage privately funded medical research and to coordinate efforts with federal, state and local agencies dealing with AIDS and AIDS research.

“With the fiscal constraints we’ve been under, it has been really difficult to make the kind of commitment that is desirable,” she said.

At the county level, Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said Friday that spending on AIDS has leaped from about $100,000 five years ago to about $5 million this year.

A total of 2,004 AIDS cases have been reported in Orange County since 1981, according to County statistics updated at the end of August. Of those, 1,304 have died. Ten of the cases involve children, of whom seven have died.

The increased funding shows AIDS “has soared as a priority and that we are engaged in an all-out effort to do as much as is within our capacity,” said Vasquez, who was so stunned by the news of Johnson’s HIV infection that he sat alone in his Santa Ana office Thursday, remembering the time he met his hero at a Rams game last year.

One area that needs more attention is bringing AIDS education to minority communities, particularly to Latinos, he said.

In that regard, Johnson, who is black, may have done more in a single day than the combined efforts of health-care and AIDS education workers in recent years, said Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry, associate dean of students at UC Irvine and longtime volunteer on AIDS issues.

“This is going to have a terrific impact on the youth of this nation, and particularly on people of color,” said Gentry, who has twice tested negative for the virus since his longtime lover died of AIDS a few years ago. “Mr. Johnson has moved the HIV (virus) into the realm of ‘me’ from ‘them.’ . . . He’s the Rock Hudson of the heterosexuals, of the people of color and of the athletic world.”

Gentry, one of the first openly gay elected officials in California, is irked that it has taken a decade to shake the notion of AIDS as a disease that affects mainly gays and intravenous drug users.

“Part of me is frustrated and angry that there are thousands and thousands of people who are suffering out there without the kind of support that Mr. Johnson has had even in the last 24 hours. That hurts. But it’s understandable. As people, we don’t like bad news.

“We want to think it isn’t going to affect us. . . . The Magic Johnson situation finally blows that idea out of the water.”

What O.C. Health Educators Tell Children About Avoiding AIDS

Abstain from premarital sex.

If you are not sexually active now, remain abstinent. “We need to make it the peer norm that it is perfectly OK for youngsters not to be sexually active yet,” said Susan Sullivan, AIDS education coordinator for the Red Cross in Orange County. How to Reduce the Risk of Contracting AIDS:

Reduce the number of sexual partners.

Be discerning about your partner’s risk history. Know that people who have had multiple partners or a history of intravenous drug use are at greater risk of contracting and transmitting AIDS.

Use condoms as a barrier. Latex rubber condoms lower, but do not eliminate, the risk of contracting AIDS.

Use spermicide foams or gels containing nonoxynol-9, which kills the AIDS virus.

Use water-based lubricants. Petroleum-based lubricants deteriorate latex rubber.

Prepare yourself to negotiate safer sex practices with a partner. Develop refusal skills. Have a standard and hold the line.

Do not mix alcohol and sexual activity. “If you’re drunk, you are not likely to make the best judgment to protect yourself and lower your risk of contracting AIDS,” Sullivan said.

Do not share needles, whether for piercing ears, injecting steroids, making tattoos or even becoming “blood brothers.”

“Because AIDS is mainly a blood-borne disease, any of these kinds of behaviors could put you at risk,” Sullivan said.

Source: The Orange County Health Care Agency and the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross.