HIV Conference Spotlights Infected Women

Tamara Lindley-Brown contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from an old boyfriend. Patti Wetzel, a physician, got it from the accidental stick of an infected needle. And Susan Tibbetts’ condition was diagnosed as AIDS after an almost-forgotten sexual liaison of long ago.

All three women have been living with the virus and its aftermath for the past several years. And all three told their stories at the second annual Women and HIV Conference at UC Irvine on Saturday, a gathering called to address the concerns of women, who are collectively experiencing one of the most rapid increases in the spread of the deadly virus.

“It’s very important to raise the consciousness of the health care community regarding women and HIV,” said Dr. Paul Cimoch, director of medical services at the Center for Special Immunology based in Irvine.

Of the 315,391 AIDS cases reported in the United States as of June, Cimoch said, about 14% were women, more than twice the percentage 10 years ago. That increase has also been seen in Orange County, Cimoch said, where 173 women have been diagnosed as having AIDS, 58 of them within the last year.

The doctor attributes the increase, in part, to the lack of organization among health care professionals trying to educate women about preventing the disease.

“Gay groups are very well organized, and their educational efforts have been effective,” Cimoch said. “Unfortunately, women aren’t really organized: They typically are more concerned with their families, and pay less attention to their own needs.”

That was one of the issues discussed at Saturday’s conference, jointly sponsored by UC Irvine and South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach.

Other topics covered by two keynote speakers and presented in separate workshops included how to disclose HIV status to others, psycho-social aspects of the virus, cultural diversity and HIV, legal and benefits issues, helping children cope with the loss of a parent, safe sex, alternative treatments and gynecological manifestations of the human immunodeficiency virus.

“Part of our goal here is to get infected women and health care professionals talking together,” said Ellen Turnbull, an organizer of the conference, which was attended by about 300 people, including 50 women infected with HIV.

It was the testimonials of some of those women that provided the conference’s most poignant moments.

“The value of this is talking about AIDS,” said Tibbetts, 36, of Laguna Beach. “Hopefully, I’m taking something very dark and negative, and encouraging other women to come out from their isolation and take whatever path is right for them. Usually the right path is to talk about it.”

Lindley-Brown, 33, talked about it a lot.

“What my infection has meant to me is that we can no longer make ironclad plans for the future,” she said. Lindley-Brown, a Costa Mesa homemaker who lives with her husband and young son, added that there is a hidden blessing in being HIV-positive.

“The benefit is that we don’t leave for tomorrow what can be done today,” she said. “We have learned to cherish time as gold.”