Kansans letting down guard with HIV tests, prevention

Kansans are becoming increasingly complacent about HIV and AIDS.

Health officials say the evidence of that complacency can be found in statistics that show people exposed to the virus that causes AIDS are waiting longer before being tested. The delay means doctors have less time to stop the virus from developing into full-blown AIDS.

Thomas Klocke, a Lawrence artist who has AIDS, says he has often had to decide whether to use his money to buy food or medicine. He always picks the medicine, saying people with AIDS cannot afford to skip a round of pills. A study by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates the time period between when Kansans test HIV positive and then are diagnosed with AIDS is narrowing, suggesting people aren't worried they've contracted the disease.

“What’s happening is people are waiting until they’re sick and then they’re getting tested for HIV and, of course, that’s way too late,” said Karl Milhon, director of the HIV/Sexually Transmitted Disease Section within the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“They should be getting tested as soon as there’s a possibility they’ve been exposed to HIV.”

According to a recent survey, more than 75 percent of the AIDS cases reported in Kansas between July 1, 1999, and Dec. 31, 2001, were diagnosed within a month of the person’s testing positive for HIV.

The survey, conducted by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that the time period between Kansans testing HIV positive and diagnosis of full-blown AIDS was much narrower than the 25-state average.

Less testing, more exposure

“What this says is that in Kansas we have a lot of people who ought to be getting tested but who lack the motivation to get tested,” said Milhon, who spent the past 18 years campaigning against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

It also means others no one knows how many are being exposed to HIV and precious time is being forever lost.

“The sooner someone knows they’re HIV positive, the better their chances of not developing AIDS,” Milhon said, citing medical advances in being able to either contain or slow the spread of the virus.

The advances, he said, have changed the public’s perception of HIV and AIDS. For some, it seems, the once-dreaded disease is no longer feared.

“For us in the United States, the original face of AIDS the pictures of the people ill and thin in hospital beds is no longer with us,” said Sidney Hardgrave, executive director at Douglas County AIDS Project.

“That’s a good thing, but it also means that the fear that provided so much motivation in the 1980s and in the early 1990s isn’t there anywhere. We’ve become complacent, even though when you talk to people, it seems that almost everybody knows someone affected by the disease.”

A new generation

Another recent survey, Hardgrave said, found that in the United States half of those now testing HIV positive were 25 years old or younger.

The Douglas County AIDS Project can be reached at 843-0040.

It’s not a coincidence, she said, that many in this age group weren’t even born when the dimensions of AIDS were first taking shape in the early 1980s.

Hardgrave and others are looking at ways to redesign the warnings about HIV and AIDS because, they said, there’s still plenty to dread.

Lawrence artist Tom Klocke, 53, couldn’t agree more. He has AIDS.

“The medications are a bitch,” he said. “I’m on 50 pills a day, plus injections that’s not an exaggeration. And for every medication, there’s a side effect; so I’m taking medications on top of medications just to counteract the side effects.”

Klocke, said those with AIDS couldn’t afford to skip a round of pills because their bodies would quickly develop a resistance to the medications.

“Many, many times, I get to the end of the month and there’s not enough money for both food and pills,” he said. “I have to choose food or pills. I always take the pills, I can’t afford not to.”

Also, he said, AIDS often causes strange things to happen.

“In January, I developed an ulcer in the cornea of my eye that turned out to be infected with the diphtheria virus,” Klocke said. “I had to quit wearing contacts.”

Still taboo

At Douglas County AIDS Project, plans call for expanding efforts to talk one-on-one with young people about HIV and AIDS.

But efforts are hampered by the project’s speakers only being able to go where they’re invited.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of opposition to us talking to kids because it involves sex,” said Jennifer Blackburn, information outreach specialist at Douglas County AIDS Project.

Blackburn and Hardgrave last week brought together 10 students from area high schools and Johnson County Community College to rehearse “No Easy Answers,” a play that deals with teenagers coming to grips with their sexuality.

Plans call for making performances available upon request.

Kayla Bennet, 17 and a Lawrence High School senior, is a cast member.

At Lawrence High School, she said, “There’s a split. Some of the students protect themselves by using a condom or remaining abstinent, but others are more carefree. They think, ‘Oh, it couldn’t happen to me, so why worry?'”