Œl!l> JJo rth tn ù (O bserver
Page A6
December 5, 2007
Trend has HIV Infections on Steady Climb
Lupe Mapapalangi
(from left), RaQuelle
Holden-Harris and Vera
Holden-Harris o f
Jefferson High School
visit Portland Commu­
nity College s Cascade
Campus, 705 N.
Killingsworth St., to
view a section o f the
AIDS Memorial Quilt, on
display in the campus '
Student Services
building until Friday
at 5 p.m.
PHOTO BY
M ark W ashington /
T he P ortland O bserver
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from Front
of a threat to young people than it
did in the past.
“Certainly the ‘scare factor’
i s n ’t th e re a n y m o r e ,” sa id
Rowena Johnston, vice president
of research at the Foundation for
AIDS Research in New York City.
In the 1980a and early 1990s,
the ravages of AIDS were appar­
ent to most A m ericans — either
on their TV screens as high-pro­
file celebrities succum bed to the
disease, or as individuals lost
friends or family members to HIV.
“To see people looking gaunt,
skinny and skeletal, and to know
lhat they were going to be dead
soon,” Johnston said. “It had a
sobering effect.”
The advent of antiretroviral
drugs in the m id-1990s changed
all that, however. “These days,
for the most part, you can look at
a person and not know that they
even have AID S,” Johnston said.
T h at’s making HIV seem like
less of a threat to young people,
said M a rth a C h o n o -H e lsle y .
S h e ’s e x e c u tiv e d ir e c to r o f
REACH LA, a Los Angeles-based
nonprofit that helps disadvan­
taged youth understand and de­
fend against threats like poverty,
drug abuse and HIV.
"T hey’re in this age group that
feels they are invincible — that
it’s never going to happen to
them,” she said. “Yes, they’re get­
ting all these m essages from pub­
lic sehoolson HIV and AIDS, but
they’ve never actually seen what
HIV has done, up close and per­
sonal.”
Chris Blades, one of REACH
L A ’s young, black “peer educa­
tors,” said h e’s seen a kind of
nonchalance towards HIV among
the gay or bisexual men of color
that he counsels.
“On a daily basis, they d o n ’t
see their friends suffering from it,
so it’s not a major threat to them ,”
said Blades, 21. "T hey’re in that
whole m indset of ‘Oh, it can ’t
happen to me; it will never hap­
pen to m e.’”
But there has been a recent,
troubling spike in new infections
among gay men, young and old
alike. A ccording to the CDC, the
rate of new cases of HIV infection
linked to m ale-m ale sex held
steady at around 16,000 cases
between 2001-2004, then sud­
denly jum ped to 18,296 in 2005.
HIV continues to cut a wide
swath through young men and
women in the black community,
too. According to the CDC, the
number of new infections actu­
ally dipped slightly for black
Americans between 2001 (20,868
cases) and 2005 (18,121 cases).
However, black men are still six
tim es more likely than white men
toeontraet HIV, and black women
are 20 times more likely to acquire
the virus com pared to w hite
women.
The answers to that disparity
lie mainly in econom ics, experts
say.
“The young men that we work
with are predom inantly African-
A merican, and HIV is not their
No. 1 p rio rity ,” said C hono-
Helsley. “Often survival is their
main priority — where they are
going to sleep tonight. T hey’re
kicked out o f the house; they
have substance abuse issues,
they’re in recovery.”
Young black women can easily
get caught up in sim ilar prob­
lems, or are coerced into unsafe
sex by their partners, she added.
Another trend — soaring rates
of m ethamphetamine use over the
past five years — may also be
fueling HIV infection rates for
both blacks and young gay men,
the experts noted.
Prevention Efforts Taken
continued
from Front
aged conversation.
Having seen its Latino client
population increase 31% over the
past four years, the Cascade AIDS
Project represents only a small por­
tion of the massive effort to get the
word out through everyday inter­
actions between average commu­
nity members.
Based on increased recogni­
tion of H IV ’s disproportionate
effects in the Latino population.
Planned Parenthood also secured
funding to expand its prevention
efforts in that com m unity. About
a dozen Spanish-speaking fam i­
lies participated in last w eek’s
discussion at Lane Middle School
in southeast Portland to fam iliar­
ize them selves with the sexual-
health organization's services.
” , tried to find out how we
could serve them better, and many
parents said that they wanted to
com m unicate better with their
k id s.” says Fannie G onzales,
P lanned P a re n th o o d 's L atino
education coordinator. " I'd like
to see a more holistic approach to
education, so it’s not just ‘we
d on't want to get pregnant; here’s
a condom .” '
In a near mirror to the Com m u­
nity Educator form at, Gonzales
seeks an approach to education
that gives parents tools to vali­
date concepts they already have
and habits already in place. The
technique strives to position par­
ents as allies with their kids.
C itin g
a
com m on
m is p e rc e p tio n
about
the
organization's services, Gonzales
plans to create a curriculum trans­
ferable to Planned Parenthoods
nationw ide. She says many His­
panic Americans are Catholics
opposed to abortion on principle,
and the organization providing
almost entirely preventative ser­
vices direly needs a set o f refined
methods for dem onstrating its
mission to that community.
County officials worry most
about the Latino population be­
cause o f its high teen-pregnancy
rates and language barriers. H ow ­
ever, outreach geared to African
Americans has also surged lately.
B lack c o m m u n ity g ro u p s
served as the primary sponsors
behind the recent installation of
several bus-stop benches pro­
claiming "M y friend with AIDS is
still my friend.”
H IV a w a re n e s s a c tiv is t
Cherrell Edwards finds that m o­
mentum is particularly difficult to
generate for program s targeting
African Americans.
‘‘Because our representation
isn't bigenough, government and
business leaders don’t take no­
tice,” Edwards says.
W ithout county or state fund­
ing. her organization. Collective
Care Services, will rely on its own
w ellnesseam paign togather nec­
essary resources for its educa­
tional and health-service outreach
to black women. She sees dispari­
ties causing the need for racially
specific community mobilization.
“ It's about blacks and whites
because w e're underserved,” she
says.
W orld AIDS Day kicked off
the month, so there are more ways
than usual these days to partici­
pate in the fight against the dis­
ease.
This Saturday, Dec. 8, the C as­
cade AIDS Project hosts its third-
annual conference to discuss new
techniques for com bating HIV
starting9:45 a.m. at the Governor
Hotel, 614 S.W. Eleventh Ave.
Contact Shyle Ruder at 503-223-
5907, extension 203 for more in­
formation.
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...—. . comes
(
continued
from Front
meetings. Reminding us that north­
east Portland was where commu­
nity policing started, he hopes to
see new alliances blossom.
"The more they get involved.
the more they understand what the
current problems are,” he says.
Thursday's Community Meet­
ing on Youth Violence will take
place 6 p.m. in Room 121 of Luther
Hall at Concordia University, 2 8 11
N.E. Holman St.
tïü
continued