Bill Keeton of the AIDS Resource Centerof Wisconsin said that AIDS prevention campaigns re-tailor their messages foreach new generation, but it’s been particularly challenging to find a messagethat resonates with today’s youth.
“We’re finding that there’s a newgeneration that hasn’t lived through the HIV epidemic the way previousgenerations did,” Keeton said. “They didn’t see their friends die from thedisease. So when you have young people looking at someone like Magic Johnson,who has lived with HIV for a very long time, and combine that with the notion ofinvincibility that young people have, you get a complacency.”
That complacency could cause increasedtransmission of the disease. For instance, the rate of HIV infections in younggay men declined steadily through the ’90s, but since 2000 the rate has increaseda shocking 143% for gay men under age 30. That could be because more youngpeople now believe they are not susceptible to the disease, even though AIDS isstill a real threat.
“More than 6,800 people in the state areliving with HIV, and there are about 400 new infections every year,” Keetonsaid. “HIV is out there, and there’s still no cure.”
That message will be stressed repeatedlythis weekend when AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (ARCW) hosts its 20thannual AIDS Walk Wisconsin.This year the walk recruited as its honorary chair Justin Vernon, a Wisconsin songwriter who, as Bon Iver, released one oflast year’s most acclaimed albums. Keeton hopes Vernon’s involvement will help ARCW’s messagereach a younger crowd.
Beyond Prevention and Medical Treatment
ARCW pushes prevention on all fronts,from teaching abstinence education at private schools, to doing outreach at gaybars, to running a needle-exchange program. That exchange program has beenparticularly effective in Milwaukee,helping reduce the infection rate among injection drug users by 67% since itbegan 14 years ago.
But prevention is only a part of wherethe money raised at the AIDS Walk goes. ARCW also provides some of thecountry’s most comprehensive care for men and women with HIV and AIDS, offeringnot only medical treatment and support groups, but also dental and mentalhealth clinics, social services, housing services, a 27-occupancy livingshelter and one of the city’s busiest food pantries.
“ARCW has always adapted and evolved withthe AIDS epidemic,” Keeton said. “In the beginning, a lot of patients weredying, and dying quickly. So a lot of what we did was help people die withdignity and get their affairs in order. As the disease evolved and people beganto live longer with it, we realized these people need health care and dentalcare. We started a food pantry because, in the beginning of the epidemic, a lotof people diagnosed were single adults, and they couldn’t access food pantriesbecause those pantries were for people with families.”
The dental clinic was needed because HIVoften manifests itself through the mouth, and because HIV medications oftencause dry mouth, making it painful for patients to swallow their food andmedications. Similarly, the mental health clinic was added because many HIVpatients also suffer from substance abuse, depression, anxiety orpost-traumatic stress, all ailments that can hinder medication adherence.
“HIV unfortunately continues to be adisease that impacts many folks who are low income,” Keeton said. “So when youstart looking at the disease and who it’s impacting, you also see that they’resuffering from a whole host of other issues, including poverty, unemploymentand homelessness. You can be investing all you want on their medical treatment,but it’s not going to be nearly as successful if you’re not helping patientstake care of these other issues as well.”
Living With AIDS
Maurice Jenkins, 46, is one of ARCW’slongest-served patients, having used the center for nearly two decades. Like manyHIV patients, Jenkins had no idea how to cope with the virus when he wasdiagnosed 20 years ago. He was in shock after having been infected by a Michigan dentist who waslater convicted of deliberately spreading the virus through contaminatedNovocain needles.
“Even after I took the HIV test threetimes and it still came up positive, I thought, ‘This couldn’t be,’” Jenkinsrecalled. “Twenty years ago, the virus was a death sentence, period, but thatwas all I knew about it. I attended a couple support groups, but I didn’t askany questions. I didn’t really know anything about HIV, and I didn’t want toknow.”
Adding to Jenkins’ plight was the stigmaaround the virus, which was once stereotyped as exclusive to homosexuals.Jenkins was gay, but had not come out to his family and friends, so he kept thedisease secret for four years, refusing to seek treatment.
“I didn’t have any desire to live,”Jenkins said. “For those first four years, I was drugging and drinking. Ifigured I might as well go out with a bang. Then came the fifth year, and I wasstill around.”
That’s when Jenkins began to seek medicaltreatment, but even then he struggled to keep up with his medication.
“It was a lot of pills,” Jenkinsrecalled. “I was probably taking 35 pills a day, so three times a day I’mtaking handfuls of pills. It got too tiring, and there were too many sideeffects. If I had family or friends over, I didn’t want them to see any type ofmedication bottles around me, because they might ask me, ‘What is this for?’ SoI’d hide it in my bed stand or my closet. There was still that stigma attachedto HIV.”
Jenkins credits ARCW for teaching him tolive with the disease, and giving him the resources he needed to save his life.
“I get my medical care there,” he said.“I also use the legal department to help me with my living will and power ofattorney. I used to see a therapist there. I use the library, and I use thefood pantry.”
It was only in the last year that Jenkinsfound a medical regiment that he could strictly adhere to, and it’s working.Jenkins’ T-cell count is now the highest it’s been since his HIV developed intoAIDS in 1998.
“It was a struggle, but now I’m in thebest health I’ve been in for 20 years,” Jenkins said, and he’s optimistic he’llbe able to stay that way. “I tell my son that maybe by the time I’m 70, 75,I’ll be ready to check out, but not until then,” he said. “I want to seegrandkids first.”
Jenkins said that even though AIDSpatients are living longer, he’s shocked by how casually some young people nowtreat the disease.
“I can remember when AIDS came out and itwas as simple as, ‘If you get AIDS, you die,’” he said. “So people were usingcondoms out of fear. But these days some people think that living with AIDS isas simple as taking daily pills for high-blood pressure. One person even toldme, ‘I can take a pill for the rest of my life.’”
Jenkins, who two years ago watched hispartner of seven years succumb to the disease despite the medical advances,gave that man an earful.
“I told him, ‘You do not want thisvirus,’” Jenkins said. “It’s not just the physical toll it takes, but also thesocial one, and the mental one. It’s an expensive, difficult disease to manage.Nobody should have to go through it when it can be prevented.”
Formore information on AIDS Walk Wisconsin,visit aidswalkwis.org.
