The Garden City Telegram
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Removing stigma key to combatting spread of HIV
Published 12/2/2008 in News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
The stigma surrounding AIDS is so great that when some people come to get tested at the clinics, they are reluctant to name their request: an HIV test.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram — From the left: Aspen Arellano, 14 and her mother, Cruzella Corpus-Arellano join hold candles in observance of World AIDS Day during a vigil Monday night at Stevens Park sponsored by United Methodist Mexican American Ministries.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram
"They come to me, saying 'I want to get tested,' and I ask them, 'What test?'" said Arturo Ponce, the HIV and AIDS education and outreach coordinator for the United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries.
When those seeking testing do finally vocalize their wishes, some whisper the words, Ponce said. For the Mexican-American community organizer who is intimately familiar with the Latino and Hispanic communities in southwest Kansas, stigma is the most challenging barrier to combatting the spread of HIV.
On a biting cold Monday night, Ponce and a small crowd of Garden City locals gathered in Stevens Park in recognition of the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, held annually Dec. 1.
The candles they held burned encased inside transparent red cups to stop dripping wax.
Red has become a global color of solidarity for people living with HIV or AIDS and their advocates.
The face and response to the AIDS epidemic has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Yet in spite of HIV awareness campaigns now reaching nearly all areas of the globe, infection rates are still happening 2.7 times faster than the increase in the number of people receiving treatment, according to UNAIDS.
For nearly a decade Ponce has been visiting bars, liquor stores and restaurants to hand out "safe-sex kits" -- condoms and information about the spread and contraction of HIV. Nine years ago, the baskets he left behind remained filled upon his return. Now, as Ponce travels across southwest Kansas and between UMMAM's four community health centers to speak about prevention, he is glad to find the baskets empty. He hands out about 10,000 condoms in any given year.
The educator also speaks about prevention wherever he can find an audience, he said, including schools, beef industry centers and churches.
"My first year, I tested 62 people; now it's more like 500," Ponce said. "Now people call me to make an appointment."
There is an estimated 4,000 cumulative HIV and AIDS cases in Kansas, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Of the cumulative HIV -- not AIDS -- cases in Kansas, 13 percent are among Hispanics, though they represent about 9 percent of the state population, according to the KDHE.
Norma Ayala, one of the vigil's attendees, said she is unsettled by the friends and family members she knows who are misinformed about the retrovirus that causes AIDS.
"That's when I start to say 'no, it's not like that,'" Ayala said, referring to friends who think HIV can be spread by any form of physical contact. "I talk to everyone about it because everyone has an equal risk."
Members of racial and ethnic communities may be at increased risk due to a variety of factors not limited to but including socioeconomic factors, access to health care and generally greater reluctance to be tested for HIV, according to KDHE.
AIDS cases began to fall dramatically in 1996, when new drugs became available, according to the CDC. It estimates that about one million people in the United States are living with HIV or AIDS. About one-quarter of these people do not know they are infected.
HIV testing is available at county health departments, community-based organizations and private providers. Both the Finney County Health Department and UMMAM clinics are KDHE-certified testing and counseling sites.
HIV vs. AIDS
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is different from most other viruses because it attacks the immune system that gives human bodies the ability to fight infections. AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is the final stage of HIV infection. It can take years for a person infected with HIV, even without treatment, to reach this stage.
How is HIV spread?
The HIV retrovirus is spread through human exposure to HIV contaminated blood, semen, pre-ejaculation and vaginal fluids including menstrual blood. Exposure to these fluids occurs during unprotected sex or unsafe and risky sexual practices. HIV also can be transmitted from an infected mother to her child through birth or by breast feeding. Exposure also occurs through the sharing of needles while injecting drugs or other substances.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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