HIV Interviews

What was your last T-Camp? Um, 806. Isn't that wonderful? Let's see. Your lowest was what? She's 70A. 70A. That's a much healthier number. What was your viral load? I'm detectable. Good. That's what, so critical you take those pills that you know is at this weekend. It was, again, people that, and you're only on two drugs, not the three. It's longer we can manage to make that happen the better off, because I know how you love to take pills. But at least we don't have you on a whole lot right now. So tell me how long have you had this congestion and all the still... Ten days now. Ten days. Have you been taking all your pills regular? Yep. Not missing any. Nope. That's one of the things that he and I both know is so critical is to take them every day all the time. And that gives you a tough final. Deep, deep breath for me. Are you coughing anything up?

Yeah. What does it look like? Green. And how have you sugar-spin? Kind of okay. When you say kind of okay. Have you been checking? When I check it, it's kind of in the 200 range a lot. Has anything gotten worse since you were feeling ill? No. It actually dropped in because I really wasn't a lady. So when did the cough get with the kind of green sputum? Has that been going on for a very long? About five days. And you've not taken anything other than over to Canada. Right. I think I can't help it. You're flying wind. It's a long road. Okay. Well, we need to get you a good decongestion and a hiss to me and see if we can't clear this up. Oh, something happened at ERA. Women in the African-American population have not been exposed in my opinion to the education and the tools they need to say to a gentleman friend.

Sexes with a condom. And that's the only way this is going to stop because women are put at risk sometimes without their knowledge. They don't realize that their man has either done drugs or has been with other women or may still be with other women. They may not know that he is an active injection user. They sometimes know those things and still don't have the power within the culture to tell him what he needs to be told to not have sex without a condom. We all know there's a great deal of poverty and abuse and socioeconomic issues. Not just in the African-American population, but that's what we're talking about. And those are some of the contributing factors. My goal is to stop it now. In Mary's situation, it happened in a marital relationship and yet she had not a clue what could happen to her. And I think it's just critical that every young woman of any culture understands it's out there. It's very imperative that we get that information into the black culture because right now that's where the bulk of undiagnosed illnesses,

the bulk of people who are carrying it that don't have it. I don't care how good of a family he comes from. I don't care how much education you think he has. I don't know. Don't care how straight he seems. It only takes having had sex with the wrong person before, carrying it around. If you haven't had a test, you don't know that you don't have it. And if indeed, even if you've had a test, if you've had sexual activity unprotected within six months, you may still have it and not be positive on the test yet. The only way around all of that and to prevent you from being in Mary's position is to always protect yourself. And it's not being African-American. There is no genetic or racial predisposition to this genetically. Unfortunately, this disease got into many people in the 70s, early 80s. The gay population recognized that and really started some aggressive campaigning and their incidence has decreased. It got into African-American men at that time, oftentimes through injection drug use and sharing of needles and in some women also.

But that epidemic went at least relatively unflagged. No one spent much time talking about it. It was a difficult community to really access at times. And as a result of that, it spread very silently for a number of years. Many of my patients and many of the people in the community will tend to look at a disease as symptoms. So if they don't feel something, then it's not happening. It's not there. And unfortunately, that many times delay them going in and seeking the care that they really need upfront when they're not feeling any symptoms. So that they can prevent some of those symptoms later on, at least the severity of those symptoms later on. HIV is no different. We are disproportionately affected. We have, I think, it's 2.4 to 1. So more than 2 times infected in Kansas than the white community.

And again, it's very important that if anyone think that they have been exposed or know that they've been exposed, should get tested. And if tested, they need to get into a program where they're treated on a regular basis. You know, knowledge is very empowering. And without it, you can suffer. And when it comes to HIV and knowing what your status is, it's even the same thing goes. It can be very important for you to know what your HIV status is. If you think you've been exposed at any point in the past history, and it doesn't have to be just yesterday, could have been six months ago, then you ought to get tested. And once you have that information, you can use it for good. It helps with the availability of good testing, the availability of good treatment out there. You can have a very, very long, healthy life with HIV.

So you really shouldn't be afraid to get that test done. It's not an automatic death sentence as it's touted to be so often. I mean, there are many people who've lived ten more years, look at Magic Johnson. I mean, he's still going. And he's not wasting away. And he's been HIV for, at least he's publicly been HIV for, I think, over seven years now. So I would encourage anyone in the community that think they've been exposed at any point to HIV to go ahead and get tested. Because with that information, they can actually improve their life and help our community as a result by not indigent anyone else. You can't just leave it at access as risky behaviors. There's personal responsibility. There's communal responsibilities at all. I affect the rate at which we're affected with whatever disease process we have. And HIV is no different. And I think that, you know, we need to let our young people know that it's a problem.

And they can get it. They're not invulnerable, like they usually feel. And because someone looks good, looks clean, looks dirty, you can't make a decision based on what they look like. To make a choice, one, whether or not you're going to become sexually active. And two, if you're going to be sexually active, whether or not you're going to try and protect yourself against the problems that are associated with sexual activity, especially at such a young age. And do think about the long-term consequences. We do need to be thoughtful and proactive in terms of getting out there and educating our community. And let them know that HIV is a problem in our community. And we do need to get it on the control. Many people say it's just because we don't want to talk about it. And I think there's some truth to that. If you're not educating people, we're not talking about it. If we're not saying it, no one knows that it's there.

No one knows it's a problem. If we do talk about it, it will be helpful that we can have produced the rate. God knows why it's more prevalent in our community. And the people who are affected knows why it's more prevalent in our community. And a lot of it does boil back to, they haven't been educated about it. They're afraid. And they continue in the lifestyles that they've been in without change. And despite the fact that they know that they've possibly been exposed to HIV, or they have HIV. And hopefully we can convince our community that it's important for us to care for each other and ourselves. Well, a lot of people still, they believe it's a gay disease. And as long as they're not gay, we're sharing intravenous drug equipment with someone who's HIV positive. They have no risk of worry for exposure. But the trend switched in the beginning of the 90s.

And HIV has started to affect heterosexuals the way it affected the homosexuals in the 80s. So we're just trying to get the message out that regardless of whatever behaviors they're participating in, they have that risk of acquiring HIV and AIDS, they have that risk of becoming infected and living their life with this terrible infection. Before they participate, basically the participants have to attend a class on sexually transmitted diseases and also a class on AIDS. Both of the classes, like on the STDs, we gather facts of the most prevalent STDs that we seek here at the health department and educate them on each of the diseases as far as how you can become infected, what symptoms to look for and how you can prevent infection and what you should do if you were exposed. And we do that on STDs as well as AIDS. We'll have an AIDS educator out there. He's currently infected with AIDS and it's a pretty strong message coming from someone who's living and dealing with HIV and AIDS.

We're living by myths and not getting the facts, I believe. And when you think of, in our community, if you're not, a church door, or you're not, you're not receiving the newspaper, maybe, or your schools are in a whole different neighborhood community. The family's almost isolated. They don't get the information when you stop to think about it. I know many people who maybe would enjoy the daily paper but can't afford it. So we're back to economics again. I believe that when we had our neighborhood schools, a lot of information education was passed through to the community there.

But we don't have that anymore. And I think that may be, that is possibly some of the reasons. And I don't know all of the reasons as to why this is happening. But I think that if we continue to say it won't happen to me, that's the form of a now. Because we're looking at, from the moral side, we would say, do not participate in sexual activities. What we are trying to say to everyone is that we are not endorsing that. But we are saying that in the event it happens. Everyone needs to be supplied with information and education. And I think though that that is a barrier. We're not able to get to, I'm not sure if the parents are afraid that of what may be said to the children but we would, we would welcome them to be a part of the audience.

I'm not sure if we, the whole community is not in denial. I don't know if you noticed the newspaper article last week relating the decline for the first time in the spread of AIDS across the country. But yet in the African American community there is an increase. So I think that it's because we are not acknowledging and not coming forth and saying I have a person in my family who needs help or who has AIDS. And I want to know more about it. Generally we closet the act. We just closet it. And I find that medically sometimes they're not diagnosed with AIDS. They're usually diagnosed with another medical problem. Why do you think that so? Do you have any?

Well, basically it's factual that you do not die from AIDS itself but AIDS destroys that the body in such a way that other areas are affected and such as your lungs and your heart and well, so you do have other results happening to you and that you will die from. I'm sure that that's what medically they use. But no one mentions the fact that the body has deteriorated because they have AIDS. Usually based on the history, when I get a sexual history, I would find out from that whether or not that person is at risk and then I'll ask him about getting an HIV test. Even if some of them would at first say, well, I don't need that, but then I would say just based on your history, based on what you've done. You've had more than two partners in the last six months without any protection.

You came in with another sexually transmitted disease. HIV is also sexually transmitted. Let's go ahead and test you for HIV. And it's still a choice, but I usually recommend it. I think most of the time I'm very convinced and just by explaining to them why the importance of having a test in, my whole goal, many times, is to encourage them to be absent until they admit that one special person will be with the rest of their life. And that's why I insist on, but not their father and I can't be there with them all the time. And so I do recommend that if they're going to have sex, they do use it at all times. That's sometimes when you think about it, or if it's just convenient, but remember that if it's not there, then the event should not happen. Hi, good afternoon. My name is Tony Glover. I'm with the Knox Center and I'm out here passing out condoms and giving HIV AIDS education today. You need a condom? Not really, not. I don't, I don't, uh, and those like that. No, I want female partner. That's, that's why I stick to it. We both been tested so we know we both is good.

So we stand together and keep them like that. I know AIDS discrimination on HIV. Anybody can get it. You know what I'm saying? And my AIDS group is the worst who's both active out here on, you know what I'm saying? On the sexual tip, they think you know that it's a place being a player that has six, seven different, you know what I'm saying, females or, you know what I'm saying? Vice versa, males females having six, seven different males, you know what I'm saying? I think that's play a type, you know what I'm saying? But it really ain't, you know what I'm saying? It's killing us. If it, if it come down, you got to give out like that strap up, use precaution. Say the world. The real thing that's going on is, you know what I'm saying? But it's killing brothers, whether it be violence or sexual outlet. The AIDS is, it's serious, you know what I'm saying? And it's in the communities, you know what I'm saying? And they need to be, be aware of that and take precaution. And that means use, you know what I'm saying? Potassium. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the people that you might think they ain't got AIDS, might be the ones that got it. You know the beautiful ones? Then be the ones that you know what I'm saying? Because you know, everybody's after me. What about HIV testing? Have you been tested?

Yes, I've been tested. You think that's something everybody needs to do? Well, I mean, if you have, if you got more than one sexual partner, you know what I'm saying? You know, you haven't had a sex with a person. Don't know who the child partner got about your partner. It's a good idea to do that. I'll give it to you. Do you want to? Do you want my little baby? Yeah, they're done with me. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Tonya Glover. I'm with the Knox Interformally Need Arts. We're at 1809 North Broadway. It's right across the street from Javaris Carpet. And I'm out here today passing out information on HIV and AIDS and giving condoms and just educating our community about what's going on with the virus. We offer vouchers, brochures, how to use a condom and just condoms in general. Would you like to take condom? I will. Thank you. To this day, he claims he is not HIV positive, but I was diagnosed in September of 95. And I just had to go on from that point. And I know at least 50 African-American

women who are heterosexual, who have had relationships with heterosexual African-American men, but yet I don't know any African-American men who are heterosexual, who profess to be HIV positive. I've met two in my entire life. A life-threatening disease, it's the type of thing that you really get focused. You really become a very serious person. You have to remind yourself to math. You have an urgency about time and time is the most important thing that I have. And so it's the one of the few things that if I give of you my time, I've given you my all. I've given you my greatest resource. He says that he wasn't and that I must have got it before him or after him, but there was no one after him. So I said, well, if I

did get infected before you, then I exposed you to it during our brief marriage and you need to be tested. And that's what I left it at. And to my knowledge, he hasn't been tested and is not professing in BHIV positive. In fact, I heard that he's remarried in another state. I couldn't keep it from him. They knew something was wrong and they began to, and they knew that it was something major. They could sense that it was something serious. And they began to ask, do you have cancer? What happened? They knew it. They figured it had to be something medical. And they didn't understand. And they just figured it out. And they never once said you have AIDS, but they knew that it was something serious. And so I just told them I couldn't keep it from them. There was just no way. I began to cry. And my doctor left out and she kind of got teary eyed. And she came back in. And she gave me some brochures

about Prairie View and different counseling and different things like that. But far as the HIV yourself, I knew as much as she did and neither one of us knew much. And from that point on, I went to the public library and read all I could read and listen to all that I could listen to and try to educate myself. And the meantime started going to Prairie View for counseling. And I'm just giving away information. Did you like the product? No. Well, you're going to hear me when I get somebody else thinking. Oh, okay. Thank you. Well, this is my baby. Okay, but it says it. It says it. Okay. All right. Thank you. Usually I try to be flexible. Some people are approachable. Others are not. They don't want to be bothered. Some people want the information or are very receptive to the information that others are like, no, I don't want it.

You know, I don't want to be bothered with it. So you just leave them alone. You don't, I don't try to pressure them or anything like that. But I just try to be me and keep it open because I think that comes across better than being phony and trying to force the information on them. So I recommend that people, it depends on what type of behavior you're participating in. If you're participating in risky type behavior, you need to get tested quite often. I say about every six months, if you know you're going to be participating in that risky behavior, keep it open and continue to go get tested. If you have a fear of monogamous and you're just sticking to one partner, you know, it'd be great for you and your partner to go down and get tested together, then you'll know, you know, or make a commitment. Stay abstinent for six months, go get tested and do that follow up. You know, so you'll know what your partner is doing. When I passed out World's AIDS Day information, I did a follow-up then. And there, they're starting to be receptive. They're starting to come around slowly.

You know, he was willing to take all the condoms, but he didn't want any of the age information, you know, at all. Do you find that happens quite a bit or? Yeah, you know, they're very receptive as to taking the condoms, but, you know, as far as the information, getting educated, how to put the condom on properly so that it does not break. You know, they don't want to hear any of that. Why do you think that's so? Your guess is it's good as mine. I have no idea. As to why they would not want to protect themselves from this disease. I don't know. I'm just curious if do you think maybe some of them feel like they already know how to do some of these things. You know, they know how to put the condom on. They know, they think they know perhaps. Yeah, I think they know. That's a good phrase. Think they know how to put on the condom. More African-American women are the ones. They're the ones that's on the rise right now. African-American women in the youth. Because I guess they feel it's not going to happen to them. If they're with this person, you know, and they're all in, you know how that goes. They just don't feel they're at risk.

And if I can get more women and children, well, youth, the information, maybe we can, you know, save our African-American rates. Starting at the age of 13, I feel 13 is a good age. I'm just not giving kids information on how to use the condom. If they're going to be sexually active. I know parents are like, well, no, no, no, not my child. But yes, you're a child. I'm out here today passing out HIV AIDS information and giving out condoms.

Have you been tested for HIV at all? No. Would you like to get a condom? No, five. You know African-American women are the ones that's on the rise nowadays. I know. You know. And you look like you're in a nursing field. I am. So you're having a safe stay. And you think you feel like you have enough information? All right. My mom's a nurse. We go through that daily. You know, is that typical? Uh-huh. Yeah, that's typical. Women don't want condoms. Yeah, I see. They feel it's not their responsibility. It's the man's responsibility to, you know, provide the protection. I know when I went down to get my HIV AIDS test, they drew blood. They stuck a needle and they actually took blood to test. How long does it take to get the result? Two weeks.

Took about two weeks for the results to come back. And that was the longest two weeks of my life. That really was because I was very nervous, very, very nervous. But I was happy once you said you're, you know, everything checks out fine. You're negative. I was like, ooh. When I grew up, our parents were always concerned about so-and-so getting pregnant. As an adult and a father, I'm concerned about my child and my children getting pregnant. But I can tell you, I've had that honest conversation with all my kids about safe sex. I said it's not about having babies anymore. It's about you staying alive. It is time for us to wake up and to tear down the walls of self-righteousness, self-preservation, and traditions that we have raised up. It's time to wake up and to realize that what affects some of us affects all of us.

It's time to realize that the church is a part of and not separate them, the communities in which we live. There is a bomb in Gilead that is good for the healing of the soul. There is a doctor in the house, and his name is Jesus. Jesus, he can heal every hurt, he can cure any disease, HIV, AIDS, and even a broken heart. Wake up church. Wake up church. Wake up church. Let's go home. Let's go home. There is a bomb. It's in Gilead. To make the wounded home. There is a bomb.

It's in Gilead. It'll heal. It's in the ceiling. It's a bomb in Gilead. To make the wounded home. It's a bomb in Gilead. It'll heal. It's in the ceiling.

If you cannot reach like Peter, and if you cannot pray like one, you can tell. There is a bomb in Gilead. It's in the ceiling. There is a bomb in Gilead. It's in the ceiling. It's in the ceiling.

I think our response might be more in line with the leader, with the founder and the builder of our church, reach out his hand and touch them. Our congregations might become touching centers. As people of faith, as the faith community, we might be challenged, particularly after we have learned tonight, rather than withdraw to ostracize, to condemn, or to reject, to lift up our hands and to touch. I just would like to see everybody get tested and know their status and know where they're at so that we can stop spreading this thing. I think that would be one of the key things to prevention. Not only stop the activities that put you at risk, but know your status. I'd just like to see everybody know whether they are or whether they aren't. That seems like the one of the hardest things is to get people

to work up the courage and the nerve to be even tested. For the first, I'd say 48 hours, I was constantly crying. All day, all night, I didn't sleep. And it was total tears. My daughters realized that there was something different in my attitude, my demeanor, my whole everything. And one of them began that's closer to me. She began to follow me throughout the house when she come home from school. And it was like, what's wrong, Mom? What's going on? What happened? There's only one of me. This overwhelming responsibility out there to get the information out. You know, people request presentations all over the county and just trying to feel those requests basically can be a very draining process. You know, sometimes just look at the people you can help and just keep going.

And that's the only part of the job that becomes overwhelming at times. While African Americans account for 13% of the U.S. population, they account for over 40% of the AIDS cases. This number is expected to rise by the year 2005. These statistics have prompted a week of AIDS awareness activities in Wichita. From March 7th through March 13th, black churches in the area are being asked to become community centers for AIDS education and compassionate care. Organizers hope to raise the level of awareness about the reality of HIV and AIDS. Edith Knox is the executive director of the Knox Center, one of the sponsors of the event. The number of cases of the disease nationally have decreased. But in the African American community, it has increased. So with all of our disproportionate numbers, we continue to not change our behavior. We continue to not really focus on what we're doing to ourselves.

We're really in a state of denial, it sounds like. Knox says the black church week of prayer events will get underway this Sunday, March 14th. For Kansas Public Radio, I'm Carla Echoes in Wichita. It is the leading killer under the age of 55 in the black population. It's beat out homicide, cancer, hypertension, and heart disease. 100 African Americans are diagnosed with HIV AIDS every day in this country. And it is a problem that you can help stop. There is no racial nor ethic predisposition to this disease. It's not genes, it's not heredity, it is behavior. It's playing DC and being on the moral. Fortunately, our children are doing it. I wish they weren't and we still should promote abstinence, certainly putting off sex. But once it happens, it has to happen responsibly safely. And you cannot expect them to know what that means unless you have talked to them

about things that are very uncomfortable sometimes for we as older people to talk about. Condoms, safer sex, protected sex, no drugs. But if you're into drugs, get help, get clean needles. Don't inject after somebody else has. Those are tough discussions to have with 12 and 13 and 14 year olds. But unless we start having them at a higher rate, we are going to continue to see as a community what I see as a treating physician in this community every day. Increasingly young people, increasingly heterosexual, female, and unfortunately increasingly black. It only takes having had sex with the wrong person before carrying it around. If you haven't had a test, you don't know that you don't have it. And if indeed, even if you've had a test, if you've had sexual activity unprotected within six months, you may still have it and not be positive on the test jet. The only way around all of that and to prevent you from being in Mary's position is to always protect yourself.

About 13% of the American population is black. 36% of our AIDS cases are black. Now that is too much overrepresentation. It simply says it's in that community, it is there, and the more of it's there, the more it's going to be spread. Because this is a silent epidemic. People carry it for 10, 12, 15 years, and they don't know that they have it unless they get a test. And during that time, they're spreading it to their sexual partners to anyone that they share works or needles with. That's the message we want to get out is that everybody's at risk if they're sexually active. What has to happen now is that it has to be continued. It can't be just a summer league basketball for some youth. It can't be just a once a year prayer meeting where we talk about it and then go home and everything goes back to the way it was before. I think black churches have to start talking about this on a regular basis. I don't know if you heard Jesse Jackson over the weekend, but he was speaking in Miami. And he made a plea to black ministers to lead their congregation by getting a test first themselves. And then encouraging their population to get it.

He understands there's a problem. Most of the national black leaders know that there's a problem. It's just a matter of getting it into the local arena because some people might pay attention to Jesse Jackson. They're much more likely to pay attention to their minister, their mom, their uncle, somebody that's close to them. So we want everybody to understand that it is something that's out there. Your keyword, your questions, exchange, which means you're not going to find the old dirty news, needles laying out on the side of the streets, the sidewalks for our children to be stepping on them. And as you walk around the sidewalks and the playgrounds and stuff, you find them all the time, up and down the alleys. And so I believe that your keyword, there's exchange. So you're taking dirty needles off the street. Now don't worry, you're just giving the drug addicts to clean ones. So I don't see, I think it's a great idea. And at the same time, you can educate these people. It's like an opening a door to that population where you can educate and show them things and they can trust that you do care about them and want to help them.

The more of them that they use together, a lot of them really don't like to use a loan or per se. They like to use in groups because there are more people bringing drugs to the group. Some people just don't want treatment. Some people don't want treatment. It's a whole deal of it is. Some people are just going to die that way. They don't want no treatment. You know, it's kind of like the deal of it is. We can't make those folks do anything, so it's a part of the deal. You have to get to the point where you have to be willing to want some help on these. And some people are hoping that they don't think. I mean, that's just the way they want to live. Suppose somebody has HIV. And they use a syringe. And they call themselves cleaning out. Well, at the tip of the syringe, what a needle is, there's just a little bit of blood in there that you basically can't get out. You can hit it. You won't get out and come out, period. Say the next person, go ahead and use the needle. Besides, she's HIV, but that little bit of blood is in there. You go right behind her, you pull your dope up and you shoot it and you're shooting in your arm.

And the blood comes, your blood comes in that needle, then you shoot the blood in. It's just that little bit of blood that's in there. That's down at the bottom of the tube. So that's how you can be effective because you're mixing the two bloods together? Okay. 22-year-old Randy Miller was flown to Wichita in critical condition where he later died following the standoff in Ellis. Kansas Highway Patrol Lieutenant Bob Sims says the suspect had taken two hostages after ramming a police car following a lengthy chase through Ellis shortly after 10 Saturday morning. Through conversations, the mood changed from excited to relaxed. And at one point, we expected the hostages to be released and the gentleman to give himself up. However, that did not occur. The two hostages escaped out for the gunshot and were not injured. Jeremy McGuire has. There's probably a million people in this country infected. We still get 40 to 50,000 new infections every year, even though this is a totally preventable illness. We see a new infection in this country about every 13 minutes.

And we know 50% of those are in people under 24, 25% in people under the age of 19. There is a teenager getting infected in the United States of America every hour of every day. AIDS is the leading cause of death of African American women ages 25 to 44. It is the fastest rising in the African American population in general. It's the leading cause of death of all African Americans under the age of 55. It is beaten out heart disease, stroke, homicide, even, which is traditionally the killer of young black men. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says cleaning up contamination at the 9,065 acre site could run between 91 and 130 million dollars. Oz Entertainment Company, which wants to build a theme park on the land, has estimated the clean-up cost at about 40 million dollars. Oz is asking the state to issue more than 270 million dollars in bonds so it can build a theme park and resort on the property. Todd Urak, Kansas Information Network News, Topeka. Women are put at risk sometimes without their knowledge.

They don't realize that their man has either done drugs or has been with other women or may still be with other women. They may not know that he is an active injection user. They sometimes know those things and still don't have the power to tell him what he needs to be told to not have sex without a condom. You can see it on TV. I saw it on TV in 92 when it was in DC, but it was on TV with pictures of just blocks and it was almost like a blur. There are questions, exchange, which means you're not going to find the old dirty new used needles laying out on the side of the streets, the sidewalks for our children to be stepping on them.