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The Battalion Page 3 • Wednesday, November 5, 2003
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Wearing the
red ribbon
By Julie Siddique
THE BATTALION
F or the past 17 years, Dave Martin, a former
Texas A&M undergraduate student and
geology major from 1984-1987 and a cur
rent computer specialist for the English department,
has been living with HIV.
Martin, who engaged in unprotected sexual
intercourse with his first sexual partner, suspects
being infected as early as September of 1986, but he
was finally tested for HIV at the Brazos County
Health Department in March of 1987.
“I decided I didn’t want a degree anymore,” said
Martin, who discontinued his education after he
tested positive for HIV. “I kept expecting to die any
time.”
In the meantime, his first partner, from whom he
contracted the disease, has died.
Remarkably, Martin has survived for the past 17
years in relatively good health, and had not started
HIV medication until August of this year.
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs.
The only thing I do is eat what I like,” Martin said.
Martin’s health, however, has been deteriorating
recently, which prompted him to go on medical
leave from his staff position as computer specialist
for the English Department. His doctor instructed
him to refrain from driving, and he has since started
HIV medication — five different pills every day.
Martin deals with the physical and emotional
challenges he faces with a positive attitude.
“When I get down I think about happy thoughts.
I know some happy thoughts are not likely to hap
pen, but I still think about those happy thoughts.”
Martin said.
John Prochaska, a graduate assistant in the
health education department, explains that Martin’s
story is not an isolated story, and that there are
many people in the Brazos County area who are in
a similar situation.
“There are an estimated 157 people living in
Brazos County with HIV or AIDS,” Prochaska said.
According to the Brazos County Health
Department, there were 17 new cases of HIV
reported in 2002. Julie Charanza, of AIDS Services
of Brazos Valley, said the numbers are increasing
each year.
“It’s getting worse, not better. As far as new pos
itives this year, by May, we had more new positives
than all of last year,” Charanza said.
Charanza admits, however, that some of the
increasing numbers of new positives may be
accounted for due to increased awareness and edu
cation about HIV and AIDS, and the resulting boost
in people getting tested. Nevertheless, the increas
ing numbers are alarming.
“I don’t think we ever have enough education.
There are still people that have not been reached,”
said Charanza, who is actively involved in preven
tion efforts and community outreach.
Charanza and two other AIDS Services staff
members visit different communities to talk about
HIV, AIDS and safe sex. They also distribute free
condoms.
“When I do present, I try to make it very interac
tive. I don’t want it to be boring but I want people
to know this is a serious issue. I hope that some
thing I say will remind someone to use a condom,
and that will prevent that person from getting HIV,”
Charanza said.
AIDS Services provides other services in addi
tion to awareness and education campaigns. It is the
only organization that provides free sexually trans
mitted disease testing at its office during clinic hours
and at several other locations including the Brazos
County Health Department STD Clinic, A&M, all
jails in the seven surrounding counties, drug reha
bilitation centers and others, Charanza said.
Alternatively, people can choose to be tested at
hospital clinics. Planned Parenthood and other fam
ily planning organizations, but there is a charge for
testing at these locations.
AIDS Services comes to A&M once every other
Thursday and, on average, tests eight to 10 students
each week. Students can also be tested anytime at
the A.P. Beutel Health Center for an $18 fee, said
Rhonda Rahn, health education coordinator.
“Testing performed at the Health Center, howev
er, will go on the student’s medical record.
Although the information is confidential, it is not
anonymous. If AIDS Services performs the testing,
then the information does not go on the medical
record,” Rahn said.
AIDS Services is also the dominant organization
that provides pre- and post- counseling for individu
als testing for HIV.
“Different people react very differently to the
news that they have tested positive,” Charanza
said. “Emotions range from sadness and frustra
tion to anger.”
Charanza said she regularly gives the test results
to clients.
“Sometimes I cry with them, but I have to start
questioning them for names of past partners,” she
said. “It seems harsh, but we have to, and that’s the
hardest part of the job, to cut somebody off in deal
ing with the pain and to ask who they have been
with. They are so angry that everybody they have
ever been with comes to mind.”
Charanza contacts partners to let them know that
somebody with whom they have had sex with in the
past five to 10 years has tested positive and has pro
vided their name as a past partner, and that they
should also be tested.
“Some people tell you to get out of their face, but
the majority is worried and concerned, and their first
reaction is, who is it?” Charanza said.
. “After testing, individuals have two weeks to
pick up their results,” Charanza said. “If they
don’t pick up their results, their names are turned
over to the Texas Disease Intervention
Specialist, whose job is to find people who have
STDs, notify them of their status, and elicit
names of partners.”
When people test positive, AIDS Services pro
vides them information on case management and
the services that case managers could provide.
“If they decide they want our help, we bring
them in for the next step. Once they get into case
management, counseling is a number one priority,”
Charanza said.
Often, individuals needing counseling are
referred to the A&M Student Counseling Center.
Case managers provide a variety of services,
including providing for medical needs and medica
tion, transportation, food, help getting on housing
programs and utility assistance, and counseling
and referrals, said Trish Langley, a graduate stu
dent in the Bush School of Government and Public
Service. Langley volunteered with AIDS Services
for the last three years and served as a case man
ager until this August.
There are usually two to three student volunteers
from A&M working with AIDS Services, and
Charanza urges others to volunteer.
Funding comes through the Texas Department of
Health, and case management is funded through the
Ryan White Foundation, Langley said.
“With state funding we are able to pay for some
doctor visits and medicines,” Charanza said. “There
is also a program that pays for housing. The only
clients that don’t come at all are those that have
excellent insurance and don’t need our help.”
Also, few students take advantage of the services
provided by AIDS Services.
“While there are people with HIV on the A&M
campus, of those who we know about, it is a low
percentage of the total, usually about one positive
per year,” Charanza said
Students who contract HIV “go somewhere else
or go home so we can’t really provide an accurate
statistic of how many students have HIV, and what
we do know, we can’t really say because it could
violate the confidentiality of students,” Prochaska
said.
In Langley’s experience as a case worker, she
said she found that clients put a high priority on con
fidentiality.
“Most clients in a community like this one are
very concerned about confidentiality. We’ve taken
food to clients in parking lots, or gone to their
homes only in our personal cars, not the van, and
even then, if a neighbor found out we worked for
AIDS Services, we couldn’t even do that... There is
a big fear of being ostracized,” Langley said.
Despite these constraints on knowing how much
of the student population is affected, “there are peo
ple here on campus with HIV, that much I can guar
antee,” said Rahn. Rahn does prevention presenta
tions at the request of faculty or student organiza
tions about once a week.
In recent years there has been a push for more
abstinence-based education. HIV prevention case
workers, such as Langley, are concerned.
“With the push for abstinence-based education,
in the next 20 years I think there will be a steady
increase in the number of people diagnosed with
HIV. By not providing condoms and HIV education,
abstinence programs will not help those most at risk.
Most people are not 15 debating whether to have
sex, but are already active,” Langley said.
Another issue is that students seem to be less
worried about HIV.
“I think a lot of students don’t think it’s a prob
lem because they don’t hear about it as much,”
Rahn said. “Most students don’t remember life
before HIV. Because it is so ingrained they don’t
think it is such a big problem anymore.”
“Because it is not a death sentence anymore, peo
ple are less wary of it. In the 1980s and 1990s it was
a huge scare, but now people are more complacent,”
Langley said.
Rahn recommends students realize the impor
tance of protecting themselves.
“If you get HIV you will still die before you
would. You shouldn’t be terrified, but it is some
thing to protect yourself against,” Rahn said.
The groups that are most affected, and on the
state’s “high-risk” category include black male
intravenous drug users, white female intravenous
drug users and all heterosexual females having sex.
“The population highest at risk is young
women; they are getting it most often. I think
young women have the perception that it won’t
affect them,” Rahn said.
This is one of many misconceptions that sur
round HIV. In the 1980s and 1990s, many people
thought of HIV as a disease that primarily affected
gay men. Over time, however, that myth has been
dispelled.
“I think people are starting to realize that it’s not
a gay man’s disease. It doesn’t care who you are, it
just cares about infecting someone; there is no crite
ria,” Charanza said. “Another myth is that people
think they are completely safe with oral sex, but they
are not. HIV is transmitted through oral sex as well.
The risk is lower, but the risk is still there.”
Martin, who helped found the GLBT
Professional Network and regularly volunteers with
AIDS Services, recommends safe sex.
“I was stupid; I can’t blame anyone but myself,”
Martin said. “Always play safe and don’t take
chances. All it takes is one time to get infected.”
Graphic by Ivan Flores • THE BATTALION