by Judy Polanco
Staff Writer
Chris immediately saw Janice at the bar ordering a drink. The two started talking, then dancing, and, as the night progressed, they were no longer dancing like strangers. Chris asked Janice to go home with him, she took him up on his offer. Little did they know that a one-night stand would cost them more than they were willing to give.
On the other side of the country, behind the alley of a downtown building in New York City, a 21-year-old man is sharing a needle with his best friend. Alan turns to drugs to cover up the pain from his verbally abusive parents. Fourteen years later, Alan will know the consequences of being an IV drug user.
Every hour, more than two young adults, under the age of 20, become infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Half of all new HIV infections occur among people under the age of 25. Janice, Chris and Alan are representative of these growing statistics.
But Alan is not just a statistic. He is not just a scenario. He is a real person.
At age 35, Alan Braun was forced to prepare for his death because of this disease. Braun has made a will, turning over all of his earthly possessions to his family and friends and given his best friend the power of attorney to terminate his life if he becomes incapacitated.
“I am representative of death,” Braun said.
When he was first diagnosed with HIV, he was relieved because he finally had a disease to go with the symptoms he was experiencing. Immediately after being diagnosed HIV positive, all Braun could think of was getting high.
“But over time I saw that if I wanted to live, I had to clean up my life,” he said.
Braun puts a face on this disease by speaking to students, colleges and organizations about his life. He believes that control over this disease can be achieved through education and prevention.
For the past two years, the University of La Verne has offered free, anonymous, confidential HIV testing. Of the 20-24 students who take advantage of this service, not a single student, that the Student Health Center is aware of, has tested positive.
Among young adults between the ages of 15-24, AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death. Throughout college campuses across the United States, there are low positive rates because of the fear factor. And the students who are getting tested are those who are in a low risk group.
“The ones that we aren’t seeing, unfortunately, are those that are at higher risk,” said Registered Nurse Cindy Denne, director of student health services.
The HIV testing, which is conducted twice a year for ULV students, is provided free through East Valley Clinic. If a student were to be tested elsewhere, the tests could range from $30-54. As the students phone in, the Health Center assigns them a specific appointment time.
When the students arrive, they are assigned a confidential identification number, consisting of a two letter, two digit code. This code is used by East Valley Clinic to identify the students.
The students undergo HIV education, individual counseling to target the behavior risk, and then the blood draw. An elisa test is performed. If the result is positive, it is done twice. If the result continues to be positive, then a western blot test is performed to ascertain the result. The use of both tests allows for a low number of false negatives.
Anyone who is considered to be in a high risk group is encouraged to get tested every six months.
“There is really no reason not to be tested,” said Denne.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is no longer thought of as a “gay man’s disease.” From 1987 to 1993, cases of HIV have increased more than 200 percent among California’s adolescents, women, African Americans, heterosexual injection drug users, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders.
Within San Bernardino County alone, the number of AIDS cases has grown by 201 from 1983-1995, accumulating a total of 1,971 cases, as reported in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. These amounts represent the number of cases that have been reported. They do not represent people infected with this virus who do not know it.
Besides the element of fear, many students fail to get tested because of the stigma involved. According to Denne, when an individual is tested, the automatic assumption is that they are promiscuous.
“Prevention is your first line of defense. I think the students need to understand that this is something that is very real and they need to protect themselves,” she said.
No matter how long an individual denies the opportunity of exposure, the disease continues to progress. Ninety thousand people between the ages of 13-29 have been diagnosed with AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control. These individuals may have found themselves in similar situations as Alan, Chris and Janice. But now they are statistics, faces to go with a disease, that knows no gender or ethnic biases.
“I’ve had to learn a hard lesson. I don’t want anyone to go through what I am going through,” said Braun.
