It has taken 20 years, but “at long last,” U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asserts, “the world is waking up to the gravity of the AIDS crisis.” That crisis presently has more than 36 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS. In the year 2000 alone, 5.3 million people became infected.

From the five cases reported in the U.S. in June of 1981, there have now been 750,000 cases of AIDS reported in the U.S. There have been advances in the treatment of HIV diseases which has substantially reduced AIDS related mortality and extended the lives of many people living with HIV.

Many changes have occurred with HIV, but we still do not have a cure or vaccines to prevent it. Men who have sex with men remain at high risk, with an estimated 42 percent of all new HIV infections. The number of women with HIV infections are growing, accounting for 30 percent of new cases. Most young people under the age of 25, who are primarily infected through sex, account for one-half of all new infections.

This is and always will be a scary disease, that can infect anyone, particularly if they do not use prevention measures.

There are certain factors about the disease that remain unchanged:

1. Even after 20 years, physicians and researchers still feel that prevention is the key to stopping this disease.

2. That old phrase, “It’s not who you are but what you do that will give you this disease,” still holds true.

3. HIV is not transmitted through casual contact, i.e., hugging, sharing water glasses, contact with saliva, sweat and tears or through insect bites, swimming pools or blood donations.

4. There has to be direct contact with a.) blood, semen from a man, vaginal or cervical secretions from a woman, or breastmilk; b.) HIV must be present; c.) It must be in sufficient quantity and d.) It must get into the bloodstream.

5. You cannot tell just be looking at someone that he is HIV positive. An HIV test is the only sure way to tell.

There are several different ways of testing available now. At the Coles County Health Department, we have a free anonymous testing site. The testing method is not a blood draw. It is the Orasure method, and it is just a matter of putting an osmotic pad into the mouth for four minutes, taking it out and sending the pad to the laboratory. An ELISA test is run on it, followed up by a Western Blot, if necessary. The test is considered to be 99.9 percent accurate.

Joyce Zschau

RN, BA, Coles County Health Department