AIDS Awareness Hits Home : After Years of Meager Interest, Residents Swamp Local Services

For the past four years, South Bay AIDS groups have struggled for recognition and funding in the shadow of their bigger and better-established cousins in nearby Los Angeles and Long Beach.

But local activists now say their work may become easier in the wake of basketball legend Earvin (Magic) Johnson’s recent announcement that he is infected with the HIV virus that causes the deadly disease.

Although most South Bay groups have yet to tap the outpouring of sympathy and awareness triggered by Johnson’s disclosure, they already are feeling its impact: Hot lines are ringing off the hook, appointments for free anonymous HIV tests are booked until mid-December, and AIDS education groups have been deluged with requests from schools for on-campus seminars about AIDS prevention.

“Everyone seems to have felt this tragedy with Magic Johnson,” said Andre Cunningham, director of outreach programs for the Youth and Family Center in Inglewood. “There was a denial period for everyone that ‘No, this can’t truly be happening to Magic.’ . . . People have accepted it now, but emotions are still running high.”

In the past week and a half, the South Bay Free Clinic has had to triple its staff at its HIV testing sites in Gardena and Manhattan Beach to counsel people coming in for tests.

Volunteer Margaret Torney, 62, who answers phones for the clinic every Monday and Thursday, said many people are now calling to schedule HIV tests for themselves, roommates and friends. Although she usually can make appointments for HIV tests within the same week she receives a call, the available time slots are now booked until mid-December.

“The dam just broke,” Torney said. “The phone never stopped ringing for one minute.”

At the Gardena testing site last Wednesday, 33 people were tested for HIV infection in a 2 1/2-hour period. One woman in her mid-20s said she has been planning to be tested since she started dating her new boyfriend. But it wasn’t until she heard Johnson had contracted the virus that she summoned enough courage to schedule an appointment.

Other AIDS groups throughout the South Bay have also felt the impact of Johnson’s announcement.

Volunteers have come out of the woodwork to donate time, food and money to St. Paul United Methodist Church in Redondo Beach, which provides food, meals and basic medical supplies for homeless people with HIV infection, said the Rev. Jim Hamilton, who runs the church’s AIDS Heartline program.

For weeks, residents of a low-income senior housing project in Hawthorne have been collecting cans of food for the church program. But as a result of Johnson’s disclosure last week, “the box has started to fill up a lot faster,” said Bill Godin, who manages the 75-unit senior complex.

Mindful of the imprint Johnson’s revelation has made on South Bay youngsters, Inglewood’s Youth and Family Center is scheduling as many AIDS prevention seminars as possible at local schools.

Whereas staff members typically set aside two days a week for AIDS prevention programs, the center has put everything else on hold to make daily presentations at Inglewood’s schools.

Five counselors spent the entire day Thursday talking about AIDS prevention to groups of 10th-graders at Inglewood High School. By the end of the day, half of the 10th-grade class heard the presentation. The counselors plan to speak to the rest of the class early next week before moving on to other campuses.

“We’ve really accelerated our pace because of the fears kids have right now based on the myths and misconceptions they have about the virus,” Cunningham said. “There’s a need to get out there right away to talk to these kids. We’ll keep it up probably at least for the next couple weeks.”

The heightened interest in HIV testing and AIDS prevention is heartening for local AIDS groups, because, they say, South Bay residents historically have not perceived themselves at risk for infection.

Nevertheless, some South Bay AIDS activists said they have mixed feelings about the flood of emotion triggered by Johnson’s announcement.

Gary Prunier, president of the board of directors of a support group called Being Alive-South Bay, said he selfishly thought first of the benefits it would reap for himself and others who are also afflicted with the disease.

“I thought it is probably one of the best things that’s happened to us--people infected with the disease--to get someone of his stature coming out and identifying himself as HIV positive,” Prunier said.

But Prunier added, he also couldn’t help feeling anger “because I know of hundreds personally who have passed away from this disease and none of them got press conferences. . . . It seems there was a total lack of awareness that this disease was here until this happened to him.”

Although AIDS cases were documented in the South Bay as early as 1981, it wasn’t until six years later that the area had a network of community-based groups that addressed the problem.

Some AIDS activists say the South Bay was slow to respond because residents here, especially those in the more affluent beach communities, had trouble believing they could come down with the disease.

“My sense is that people who are diagnosed (in the South Bay) can afford to keep it a secret,” said Ann Copeland, a Torrance woman who runs a support group in Hermosa Beach for women with HIV. “They have insurance, they have security, they have people who will take care of them. . . . We have pretty nice lives in the South Bay and I just don’t think people believe it’s going to touch them.”

Although the number of AIDS cases has been relatively small compared to those recorded in many other parts of the county, health officials say the statistics tell only a small part of the story.

As of the end of September, 643 of the 13,415 people reported to have contracted AIDS throughout Los Angeles County resided in the Harbor, Inglewood and Torrance health districts.

Because health officials only keep track of people who have contracted one of the 25 illnesses defining acquired immune deficiency syndrome, no one knows how many people in the South Bay are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. Many AIDS experts, however, believe that for every report of AIDS there are at least 10 other people infected with HIV who have not yet come down with AIDS.

Meanwhile, about 1,800 people infected with HIV are being treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, which provides outpatient and hospital care for indigents in the South Bay who are infected with HIV.

In the past four years, as the disease has made its deadly inroads throughout the South Bay, several local groups have sprung up to offer support and assistance to its victims.

The South Bay now has support groups for people with AIDS, their families and women infected with the HIV virus. In Lawndale, there is a five-bed long-term shelter for homeless people infected with the HIV virus. And a group of South Bay AIDS activists is raising money to buy or build what they hope will be a 15-bed hospice for people terminally ill with AIDS.

But AIDS activists say the number of people seeking help from these community groups is small compared to the thousands believed infected with the AIDS virus.

The largest group, Being Alive-South Bay, has more than 300 people on its mailing list. The group, now in its third year, is a coalition of people with HIV infection and their supporters, family and friends. About half of its members, many of whom meet at weekly support group sessions in Torrance, are infected with HIV.

Prunier said he expected Being Alive-South Bay’s membership to be much higher by now. But he said, the problem is that “a lot of people are still afraid to come forward and identify themselves as being HIV positive.”

Women at Risk, a newly formed group that holds support groups for women infected with HIV, tells a similar story.

In recent days, the group’s co-founder and president, Ann Copeland, who learned four years ago that she contracted HIV from a bisexual boyfriend, has received a dozen calls from South Bay women who believe they are at risk of infection.

But although Copeland said she knows at least 60 South Bay women who are infected with HIV, only five of them regularly attend the group’s Hermosa Beach meetings.

“Once you go into a group, you can’t stay in denial about the problem anymore,” Copeland said. “You have to marry the disease and become comfortable with it. . . . A lot of people say they would rather not know.”

And Mothers of AIDS Patients, a support organization for the family members of people afflicted with AIDS, attracts only about 15 people at their meetings in Torrance every month.

“We do have people calling constantly . . . but it takes a while before people are ready to walk out in a group of strangers and talk about something so devastating,” said Janet McMahon, the group’s financial officer, who lost a son to AIDS five years ago.

Although Johnson’s disclosure has unleashed a flurry of fund raising for AIDS research and support nationwide, many local AIDS activists said it is too early to say how their community groups will fare in the competition for funds. But several expressed hope the newfound attention focused on AIDS will help make South Bay groups more effective before the wellspring of goodwill Johnson has generated dies down.

“I just hope this takes some of the stigma away so people can be more free and don’t have to worry about rejection,” McMahon said. “I think, as with anything, (the awareness) will taper off because other things come along. But let’s just hope it doesn’t taper off too soon.”

AIDS in the South Bay

South Bay organizations dealing with AIDS issues hope Magic Johnson’s announcement that he has the HIV virus will bring more attention to their efforts. Already, information hotlines are being swamped with calls and the area’s two free AIDS testing centers are booked through mid-December. Here’s a look at AIDS cases in the South Bay:

Number of AIDS cases by Health District through Oct. 31, 1991 Inglewood: 360 Torrance: 184 Harbor: 99

South Bay AIDS cases, 1986-1991 1986: 60 cases 1987: 88 cases 1988: 102 cases 1989: 142 cases 1990: 140 cases Source: Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

South Bay AIDS Information

* AIDS Heartline, food and basic medical supplies for homeless people infected with the HIV virus, 370-4319.

* AIDS Residence Program, long-term shelter for homeless people infected with the HIV virus, 978-3886.

* Being Alive-South Bay, a support group for people with HIV infection, 544-2702.

* Harbor-UCLA Medical Center outpatient clinic; call 533-2131.

* Mothers of AIDS Patients, a support group, 542-3019.

* South Bay Free Clinic HIV/AIDS Program, free and anonymous HIV testing, 376-3000.

* South Bay Hospice Project, now raising money to build a hospice for AIDS patients, 371-2936.

* Women at Risk, a support group for women with HIV infection, 372-4035 or 394-4927.