18-Year-Old With AIDS to Give $20,000 to Salk

An 18-year-old hemophiliac, who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, will visit San Diego on Monday to donate $20,000 to the Salk Institute for research in battling the AIDS epidemic.

John Keets organized a fund-raising march in his hometown of Canton, Ill., in September. More than 2,000 people--including Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne--turned out for the event in the town of 14,000. Ryan White was the Indiana youth who fought AIDS discrimination before his death last year.

Keets sees the fruits of this march as only the beginning of what he hopes will be a long campaign. Keets hopes to build his fund-raising efforts, and already, he is planning another march next year.

For Keets, the trip to San Diego also means a personal milestone. “I have always wanted to see the ocean, and now that dream (will) come true,” he said.

Keets, a student at Canton High School, has a hemophilia-related blood disorder and was infected with the AIDS-causing virus through a blood transfusion in the mid-1980s. He was diagnosed as HIV positive in August, 1989, and later contracted AIDS.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a viral disorder that’s transmitted through the exchange of body fluids, including semen and blood.

Nationwide, a small proportion of AIDS patients contracted the deadly disease--like Keets--through tainted blood. Instead, the majority of patients have gotten the disease through sexual intercourse or by sharing intravenous drug needles.

Officials at the Salk Institute said they plan to give Keets a tour of the facility, in addition to holding a press conference Monday.

And Keets’ visit will not only help their research efforts but also keep AIDS in the spotlight--a spot allocated to the deadly disease since the disclosure that basketball star Earvin (Magic) Johnson has tested positive for AIDS.

“We deeply appreciate this contribution toward our attack against the AIDS virus, and we are glad to see such events, which raise public awareness,” said Nobel Prize winner Dr. Renato Dulbecco, president of the Salk Institute.

On Monday, Keets will also meet Dr. Didier Trono, an assistant professor in the new Infectious Diseases Laboratory at Salk. Trono is studying why the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is able to enter only certain types of human cells and reproduce there, wreaking havoc on the body’s immune system.