Raising AIDS awareness

Students address HIV rates in Valley

More than 70 people received condoms, door prizes and informational brochures about sexually transmitted diseases Tuesday for a Health Program Planning (HTH458) presentation titled, “Awareness in ‘Da School: What’s Your HIV IQ?”

Austin Garber, a case manager for the Valley AIDS Network, spoke about the everyday struggles faced by Shenandoah Valley residents afflicted by HIV.

“It’s especially hard for our [HIV-positive] clients here in the Valley,” Garber said. “This is a very conservative area, very church-based. Clients feel like they’ll be discriminated against, and they are. AIDS is still a very stigmatized disease.”

Garber added that another problem for Valley residents with AIDS is the depletion of funding for medical care and other expenses. He said that in the past, individuals with AIDS only lived for about a year after being diagnosed with the virus.

With the invention of new drugs to extend the lifespans of those diagnosed with AIDS, funding that originally was meant to be temporary is being cut from programs all over the country by the national government, according to Garber.

In addition to dwindling financial support, the city of Harrisonburg does not have a clinic that specializes in treating infectious diseases to provide treatment to HIV and AIDS patients. The nearest clinic available to provide specialized support and treatment is at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Garber said.

“These drugs are expensive,” he said. “The [insurance] co-pay alone for one type of medication costs $700 a month.”

Garber said that the dosage of another type of medication requires 18 pills a day. “That’s just the HIV medication, not including antibiotics and antidepressants,” he added. “Some clients concoct ‘drug cocktails,’ and have to take over 30 pills daily.”

Sometimes patients develop a resistance to every HIV medication they are prescribed, according to Garber, and then here aren’t any other drug options for them after that.

He added that governmental “red tape” also is frustrating.

“I had a client who began to feel better. In fact, she felt so good that she decided to get a job to support her children,” Garber said. “Now she works 16 hours a day and makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to pay her rent and take care of her children.”

Some patients simply need a weekly phone call for personal support to help them get through the week, while others need more intense help with bills, transportation and emotional support, Garber added.

“You are dealing with people,” he said. “The disease affects everyone differently, so it is a case-by-case basis.”

He said that “non-progressive” cases who lead fairly normal lives, are able to go to the gym and hold a steady job, to advanced cases, who are severely underweight and susceptible to illness.

“You look at [the advanced cases] and they are so frail, it seems like if the wind blew, they look like they would snap in two,” Garber said.

The three primary ways to transmit HIV are through sexual intercourse, IV drug use and from a mother to her unborn child.

Garber said that the best way to prevent contraction of HIV is abstinence, but that condoms also are useful in preventing the spread of the virus.

Junior Ashley Smith was part of the HTH 458 group of 12 that presented the program.

“We wanted to raise [AIDS] awareness,” she said. “AIDS is a prevalent disease, and everyone comes into contact with someone who has it. Education is key in understanding how [AIDS] is transmitted and how it can be prevented.”

Jeanne Martino-McAllister, associate professor of health science, oversaw Smith’s group.

“I love it when a program comes together as nicely as this one came together,” Martino-McAllister said.

“I thought it was a poignant topic, that the turnout was very good and that Austin [Garber] covered a lot of information that students weren’t aware of before,” she added.

Martino-McAllister added that she was pleased with the emphasis on the Valley AIDS Network because it demonstrated support from the Shenandoah Valley community for people with HIV.

Sophomore Meg Jacobs is part of Martino-McAllister’s HTH 458 class and also attended the presentation.

“I came to support my classmates tonight,” Jacobs said. “I know how much work goes into a program like this. I think they did a great job putting it together and educating the campus about AIDS.”