Ryan White’s Mom to Speak at HIV Forum

Jeanne White, mother of the renowned young AIDS patient Ryan White who died in 1990, will speak Saturday at the fifth annual HIV Women’s Conference at UC Irvine.

White will discuss the fear and intolerance surrounding people with the human immunodeficiency virus, which leads to AIDS. Her hemophiliac son, Ryan, became infected through a 1984 blood transfusion and was banned from his Indiana school because of fear that he might contaminate classmates.

A judge ordered that he be allowed to return to class, and the publicity helped educate millions of people about the disease.

Ryan White died at the age of 18, just a few months before Congress passed the Ryan White Care Act. The legislation allots millions of dollars in federal aid each year for the care, counseling and support of people with AIDS or HIV.

Sponsored by the AIDS Services Foundation and the Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center, the conference will include information from an array of health care professionals.

Doctors and other care providers will address how the virus affects women, whose rate of infection is climbing fast. Conference topics include opportunistic infections characteristic of AIDS, nutrition, spirituality and prevention of burnout among caregivers.

More than 400 people are expected to attend the forum, which runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at UCI’s Student Center.

Admission to the conference is $35 for the public, $45 for professionals earning credits and $15 for students. It is free for women infected with HIV.

Information: (714) 253-1500.