Calling for AIDS awareness

With World AIDS Day nearing, advocates say awareness is just as important as ever

By Erica Ryberg

The South County Spotlight, Nov 25, 2009, Updated Dec 2, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

IN MEMORY – Public health nurse and HIV tester Mary Altenhein sits beneath an AIDS quilt panel.

Erica Ryberg / The South County Spotlight

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These days, when Marcelino Perez visits with students to talk about having HIV, he doesn’t tell them he’s going to die. He tells them he’s living with the virus.

“My immune system comes in a bottle,” the Portland resident said about his antiretroviral drug therapy. “I tell the kids, this is my immune system and without it, I will die. I literally live because of pills.”

Perez is one of many local AIDS/HIV awareness advocates who are helping spread the word about the disease. Tuesday, Dec. 1 brings World AIDS Day, a chance for advocates like Perez to remind people that, while more treatable than when they first appeared, AIDS and HIV are still important issues.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control released numbers indicating that the rate of new HIV infections is 40 percent higher than previously thought. And earlier this year, a Kaiser Family Survey indicated that concern and

awareness of HIV has fallen.

According to the state statistics, there are 25 people living with HIV or AIDS in Columbia County. Oregon sees 300 new cases per year. Across the country, a million people are living with HIV. And those are just the ones that are aware.

The biggest risk factor for contracting the virus in the state of Oregon for both men and women is sexual activity.

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