AUSTIN — A year ago, World AIDS Day would have passed by mostly unnoticed by residents of the small city of Austin.
“If you would have told me this event would have been in Austin, Indiana, I would have thought you were crazy,” State Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Austin, said in front of Austin City Hall during a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening.
Now, AIDS and HIV is very much a reality to the community of 4,200 people.
Austin, the center of an HIV outbreak that affected 181 people, recognized World AIDS Day for the first time this year.
Several community members, some directly involved in the crisis’ response and others just there in support, recognized those across the world who have died from AIDS in a candlelight vigil and reflected on the past year.
Austin Mayor Doug Campbell said he decided to host the city’s first World AIDS Day this year to spread awareness of the disease — especially that knowledge that it’s “not a death sentence” like it once was.
“We need to make people aware of the problems and the ways that we can fix those problems,” he said.
When health officials detected the first positive cases of HIV in Austin, resulting solely from intravenous drug use, Campbell said he was scared.
"So one of the things that I thought we should do, one of the big things, was to surround ourselves with good people and to allow ourselves to listen to those people and to understand the need that we have here," Campbell said.
Knowing that the state health department wouldn't stay forever, the mayor reached out to AIDS Healthcare Foundation, or AHF.
The Los Angeles-based organization that helps 500,000 people around the world dispatched representatives to Austin in late March, opening a clinic and building a pharmacy in Foundations Family Medicine.
"And thank God they did," Campbell said.
Garith Fulham, midwest director of public policy and advocacy, said the organization is there to stay.
"This is our work. It’s our mission," he said. "We came here at a time when we actually thought this was something that wouldn’t exist in our country at this point in time, so this has renewed our energy to do things in rural America in a way that we need to be doing it."
Dr. William Cooke, physician at Foundations Family Medicine, said AIDS Healthcare Foundation has helped the practice connect with people who may be affected by the disease. AHF supplied a van that Foundations Family Medicine nurses use to reach out in the community for testing, care coordination and harm reduction education.
A pharmacy opening in Foundations Family Medicine on Dec. 16 will also allow patients to fill their prescriptions right at their doctor's office.
"We stand united with this city," Fulham said.
Cooke said he hopes people in the community continue to get tested, no matter who they are.
"One of the important things is to raise awareness because this is treatable to the point where it doesn't affect someone's life," he said.
Most of Cooke's 80 patients with HIV have suppressed their viral loads so low that it's undetectable, and in theory, no longer spreadable.
"There's hope now," he said.
Goodin commended the community for coming together during the crisis.
"The corner has been turned, and it’s been turned by the work of ordinary people — ordinary people who had the courage to stand up to do what was right, to overcome bias and help people," he said.
Austin native Raleigh Campbell and his son, Jacob, attended the candlelight vigil. Raleigh said he has friends and family who contracted HIV earlier this year.
"Jacob and I thought it would be appropriate to support this," he said.
Despite the initial fear of HIV, Raleigh said the crisis in Austin has taught people that the disease is treatable.
"I think that's one of the best things that has come out of this," he said.