VAN NUYS : Bus Stop Ads to Get Word Out on AIDS

Using bus stop bench ads, the Valley HIV/AIDS Clinic in Van Nuys next week will begin a Valleywide campaign to reach low-income neighborhoods with information about preventing and getting treatment for AIDS.

Most of the 200 bench ads, in English and Spanish, will be put in northeast Valley areas such as Sylmar, Mission Hills, Panorama City and Pacoima, but will also go into Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Canoga Park and along Ventura Boulevard.

With the heading “Caring and Confidential,” the bench ads will start Aug. 5, and run for at least three months along with a print campaign in gay and lesbian newspapers. Also on Aug. 5, the clinic will release of a 30-page booklet giving referrals to services for people with AIDS and HIV, prevention tips and a list of dentists who are willing to work with AIDS patients.

“HIV is taking over in the Valley every day,” said Ana Vargas, client outreach coordinator at the clinic. “It’s hitting hard in the Latino populations.”

The campaign is geared toward reaching those low-income neighborhoods that do not have access to critical information about how HIV is spread. The exchange of bodily fluids through sex is one of the most common ways. The sharing of needles by intravenous drug users is another.

In addition, Vargas said that she has found that some Latino families--especially first- and second-generation Mexican Americans--do not realize that by sharing needles for other purposes, such as for vitamin or birth control injections, they were also putting themselves in the high-risk group to get AIDS.

“What they are doing to try to stay healthy is actually much worse,” Vargas said.

The clinic also is trying to come up with the money to publish a Spanish-language version of the resource booklet.

Trying to reach the low-income communities is a natural goal for a group trying to fight AIDS, said Robert Berger of Healthier Solutions, the company hired by the clinic to run the media campaign.

“It’s traditionally considered an at-risk group,” Berger said. “Those are the people in the health care system who fall through the cracks. Medical providers do outreach, but help only to those who have insurance or a means to pay.”