In 1982, when the CDC announced AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome) as the name of the new epidemic, the United States considered the disease a death sentence. Recent studies indicate that this is no longer the case, new treatments have made HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) manageable. Many believe that the disease has now naturalized, however, 60,000 Americans are diagnosed per year. Now is not the time to overlook this horrible epidemic.
By MICHELLE VERNE
El Nuevo Sol
Arlon’s Story
More than one million Americans are living with HIV. Many of those people don’t even know that they’re infected. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), almost 60,000 Americans are infected each year and more than 18,000 people still die every year from this horrible epidemic. Arlon Orellana is a 37-year old HIV positive gay man. He doesn’t know when he became infected but does know that he did live a promiscuous lifestyle and finds it odd that he didn’t test positive until that lifestyle was virtually over.
Arlon immigrated to California from Honduras at the early age of 15. He came with his grandmother. Life was a complete struggle, and Arlon was lost in an unfamiliar world. At 17, he was living the only life he became to know, and that was the life of a transgender prostitute on the streets of Hollywood. He says in order to make a living, he made the decision to join the profession of what he refers to as a “call girl,” and says he made more than enough money that way. He got into drugs and surrounded himself with the wrong people and the lifestyle became more and more difficult to change. Before he knew it, 20 years had gone by, that was when he made the decision to change his environment by moving to Palm Springs where he now holds a job at Walmart.
Arlon was diagnosed with HIV around two years ago, and he says that he finds it ironic that he tested HIV positive after he decided to change his lifestyle, but in a way it’s made him stronger. He believes he contracted the virus because of the lifestyle that he chose to live. Although he is HIV positive, it has caused him to choose a healthier way of life, physically, mentally and emotionally. He finds support in educating himself about the disease and doesn’t want sympathy from anyone. Arlon is highly aware of all the struggles and difficulties he will face, and because of this he makes a point to stress how important it is to stay protected. Also, to remember that HIV/AIDS is not an individual disease, it’s a sharing one, so be careful who you share yourself with and to keep mind that whomever you choose to be intimate with, you are also sharing that intimacy with whomever that person was with before you. Being able to spread his message allows him to participate in the progression of one day finding a vaccine or cure for this disease.
Arlon says that it’s important for a person to be responsible for their own actions. It’s hard to trust others, which makes it more important to take care of yourself. There aren’t any laws of disclosure that one with HIV/AIDS, or any other disease has to give to their sexual partner before they decide to become intimate. However there are laws that protect those that contract the virus from another person who was already aware they had the disease. In some cases it has been considered attempted murder. The point is, one can never be sure of what the other partner discloses, therefore, it’s important to always use protection.
“If I sleep around without any protection, then I’m going to have to take full responsibility for what I’ve done,” said Orellana. “Whatever the choice, I have to accept all consequences. I would always disclose my information.”
Arlon also talks about reinfection, this is the ability to infect someone that already has the virus, with the virus again.
“If I was to get reinfected, then either my T cell count would become lower than that person’s, or mine will be brought down to that person’s level,” Arlon said. “Some people are naive and think that since they have it, they can sleep with someone else who has it and nothing will happen, they’re ignorant and what they don’t know is that reinfection is worse than infection, and it will kill you.”
Orellana discusses the stigmas behind HIV and says that these stigmas prevent people from getting educated and receiving treatment. He says that since the disease is either linked to sex (whether it’s with a man or many sexual partners) and a dirty needle (meaning drug addicts), many are afraid to get tested, and when they do become positive, are afraid to get treatment because they don’t want others to know they’re infected. He also says he doesn’t care what other people think or know when it comes to his disease, and that the only important thing is for him to be open about it, so that he can help himself and others to learn how to live a normal healthy life.
Staying Educated – Getting Treatment
The most important thing a person that has been diagnosed with HIV can do is to stay educated and get treatment. Unfortunately, this can be very difficult, especially for someone in Arlon’s situation. There is no doubt that the ability to receive proper treatment is more difficult for those in poverty. Even a lack of transportation can be cause for not getting proper care.
According to Aids.gov, HIV is now considered a chronic manageable disease. Those that are HIV positive can still live normal healthy lives. There are certain things that make this disease different, and more difficult to deal with than other chronic diseases. That’s why it’s important to get tested, remain educated and receive treatment.
“The virus has changed, it’s a retro virus, a person might have a few more years before they start getting symptoms, but it’s harder at that point to be healthy and stay healthy,” said Amy Reichbach, Clinical Patient Health Educator in the Klotz Student Health Center at CSUN.
The CDC states a person with HIV can live longer now than before without acquiring AIDS because of all the medications developed to block receptors. Although this is the case, people shouldn’t become complacent about the disease, especially when people with HIV are subjected to daily treatments for the rest of their life, need to be carefully watched, experience terrible side affects from medication, and have to deal with the outlandish costs of the medication. All of these things are extremely difficult to deal with.
“The county health system, believe it or not, is quite good about HIV treatment, it’s more about the motivation within the person,” said Reichbach.
There are several reasons why people with HIV don’t know they have it and don’t seek treatment. Reichbach also states that even the amount of money one with HIV has isn’t a factor when it comes to receiving better medication or treatment. It’s more about the persons self-esteem. When one feels as if they have the will to live, it motivates them to receive treatment. The only difference about having money is that one can pay others to manage their care. Which is a hard thing to do when it comes to dealing with HIV.
There isn’t a cure for HIV, and it should in no way be treated like any other chronic disease. Although major advances in treating HIV, infections have increased. There were 14,110 deaths reported in the United States in 2007. The CDC reports that one in every five people infected with HIV doesn’t even know they have it, this is the reason that being tested is so important. Also if you’re sexually active, it’s imperative to get tested once every six months, as there is a “window period” in which you can have HIV and test negative. In helping to prevent the HIV virus from spreading, it’s important to know that the CDC states if you’re already infected with an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease), you are at least 2 to 5 times more susceptible to obtaining the virus.
“This is because your immune system is compromised,” said Reichbach. “And vice-versa, if you already have HIV it’s easier to get an STD, because you’re immune system is compromised. ”
Reichbach also says that HIV has become sort of like a cancer, in the sense that it goes through different stages. Because one gets sick, this doesn’t mean they’ve obtained AIDS.
“Certain types of the opportunistic infections can turn HIV into AIDS, there are about 20 of them, which means that the body has the opportunity to infect you because you’re immune system is depressed, many of them people don’t get any more because our arsenal of medication has grown,” said Reichbach.
Please click on audio link below to listen to a sound bite regarding the reason why early prevention and treatment for HIV are of the utmost importance, from Amy Reichbach.
[audio:http://www.elnuevosol.net/wp-content/uploads/HEALTH-EDUCATORNURSEEDIT_013.mp3|titles=CLICK HERE – Audio sound bite from Clinical Health Educator Amy Reichbach]Statistics and Stigmas – Where does HIV stand now?
A conversation with Dean Theodoulou:
I discussed the issues that HIV faces in our current times with the Dean of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at CSUN, Stella Theodoulou. She offered a sociological glimpse of America’s issues with the epidemic.
“We’ve never really had a comprehensive plan in the United States to deal with HIV/AIDS. Obama’s Administration are trying to rectify that, in July 2010 they launched the national HIV/AIDS strategy, that has three main goals: To reduce the number of HIV infections yearly, increase access to healthcare improving the number of health outcomes for people with HIV/AIDS, and then reduce HIV related disparities and health inequalities,” said Theodoulou.
She also says that without the correct funding we’re not going to get the positive outcomes that we need. “If you look at the infections in this country, one would have to wonder if this is an area that should actually be cut. Because the infections are going up, there’s over half a million dead so far in the United States, with 50 to 60, 000 new cases per year,” she added.
“HIV/AIDS affects all sexes of society, we’ve seen the numbers of groups grow as we’ve reached epidemic levels, it used to be men who have sex with men, I’m not saying homosexual men because that’s how we stigmatize this, I’m saying men who have sex with other men, that’s very different than when we say homosexuals. Many people want to say ‘oh it’s a gay disease’ and for many years the stigmatization meant that we didn’t get policy and we didn’t get the attention to this disease that we should have. So, I use men who have sex with other men, because there are many men who live a heterosexual life but have sex with other men from time to time. So men who have sex with other men of course are the main group, then introveneous drug users. African-Americans count for 51 percent of all deaths from AIDS, about 48 percent of new cases in 2008 were African-American, whites account for about 28 percent of all new diagnosis, hispanics account for 21 percent, there’s a report out that says one in every 52 Hispanics will be affected. It’s growing disproportionately in that community. But even after examining all those other groupings, men who have sex with other men account for about 75 percent of diagnosis. The CDC put out a report earlier this year, and it shows that men who have sex with other men, who are living in 21 cities in America, about one fifth of them are HIV positive. Washington DC has a rate of infection of about three percent, that’s equivalent to what we see in sub-Saharan Africa.”
In discussing the reasons why HIV/AIDS is so prevalent in communities with poverty, Dean Theodoulou indicated that the two main reasons are due to limited access to healthcare and less access to health information and health education.
Dean Theodoulou also explained why HIV/AIDS is no longer a topic of discussion. “The other thing that’s a problem is something called Issue Attention Cycle, basically what that says is when an issue arises in society, it get’s attention, the more attention it get’s, it starts to peak, then after a while when it become less news, you get less media coverage of it, you get less attention to it, it sort of goes away in people’s consiousness, it doesn’t mean we’ve solved the problem or the issue, it just goes away and unfortunately AIDS really suffers from that.”
Dean Theodoulou believes the most important thing one should remember is, “It’s not the behavior of someone that puts them at risk, it’s the sexual network that their part of. You might only sleep with one person ever in your life, but who’s that person been with. Don’t think about your own sexual behavior, think about the sexual network.”
Timeline of HIV epidemic:
All below information provided by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention):
Estimate of New Infections in the US
AIDS by Geographic Distribution within the US
HIV Transmission rates within the US
Statistical incedences by group reported within the US
Geographic map of HIV in the US
