Discussion on AIDS and Women Slated

Regardless of age, income or race, women are the fastest-growing population of HIV-positive people.

As part of Women’s History Month at Ventura College, sociology instructor Lauri Moore will lead a discussion on women, AIDS and HIV on Thursday.

Martina Melero, coordinator of the Ventura County AIDS Surveillance Program, said women who have sex with men who are bisexual or intravenous drug users are at the highest risk of contracting AIDS.

In California through last month, 6,242 women have been diagnosed with AIDS since the first case was identified in 1978. In Ventura County, 56 women have been diagnosed from 1982 through last month.

Out of women nationwide age 13 to 24, 51% of the reported AIDS cases for 1995 were from heterosexual transmission and 17% through intravenous drug use, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

“They’re developing AIDS younger and the majority from sexual intercourse,” Melero said. “Women need to know they can use protection and preferably abstain until the HIV status of her partner and herself are known.”

To receive the most accurate results, testing should be done six months from the last sexual encounter.

Globally, there has been more heterosexual transmission than homosexual, Moore said.

“It just happened to be in our culture and in Europe that the gay community got it first,” said Moore, coordinator of the college’s Women’s Center.

Assumptions 10 to 15 years ago that AIDS was a gay disease led to a lot of women contracting it, Moore said.

“Women were the least likely to be tested,” she said. Older women may have a false sense of security now, she added.

“A lot of women don’t think they’re vulnerable to this disease, especially if they find themselves sexually active in later life because of being divorced or widowed,” Moore said. “Women that are 40 or 50 years old were dating during the sexual revolution when sex was a great thing. . . . That’s not the climate today.”

The Ventura College event, which is free and open to the public, will be from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Room CL-2, behind the library. College parking permits are available from the information booth.

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Free Testing Offered

Women, AIDS and HIV will be the topic of discussion from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Room CL-2 at Ventura College. The event is free and open to the public.

Free anonymous HIV testing is available at several sites throughout Ventura County. Call for specific dates and times:

* Ventura County Public Health: 652-5928.

* Oxnard Public Health: 385-8647.

* Simi Multi-Service Center: 584-4887.

* Conejo Free Clinic: 497-3575.

* Oxnard Center Alcohol and Drug Programs: 385-1885.

* Simi Valley Center Alcohol and Drug Programs: 584-4878.

* Ventura Center Alcohol and Drug Programs: 652-7823.

* AIDS Care: 643-0446.