“We had great faith that, with patience, understanding and education, my family and I could be helpful in changing their minds and attitudes around.” — Ryan White
It has been about 30 years since a young Kokomo boy became the face of the AIDS epidemic after his middle school expelled him out of fear that he would infect other students.
We’ve come a long way since 1984, but not far enough.
Although HIV and AIDS are better understood now than they were when Ryan White was first diagnosed, there is still a lot of fear and ignorance circulating about the disease.
Just ask the people in Austin, where a recent HIV outbreak has raised the alarm on the disease.
Public health officials in Scott County want to ensure HIV victims are not faced with the same prejudices White and his family faced three decades ago. That’s why White’s mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, shared her story at Austin High School on Tuesday.
“Communities can make such a difference in peoples’ lives,” White-Ginder said.
White was a hemophiliac and contracted HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, from tainted blood in his medication. At that time, not much was known about the disease and no treatment existed. He died in 1990 when he was 18 years old.
Brittany Combs, Scott County Public Health Nurse, said that while lack of testing and drug abuse were factors in the HIV outbreak that has reached 153 positive cases, ignorance was the biggest underlying issue.
Many people are fearful of coming to Austin, afraid they will be infected if they came into contact with someone who was HIV positive, she said.
“Everyone in our community must arm themselves with the most information they can about HIV and pass that information on to others,” Combs said. “We all must stop for a second and let go of the fear and think logically about HIV.”
The community must fight the stigma associated with the disease.
“Hopefully we can all learn from the past mistakes that were made and make a better community for all of us,” Combs said.
Today, medically speaking, we know a lot more about HIV.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV can only be transmitted through certain bodily fluids, such as blood, semen and breast milk. These fluids must come in contact with a mucous membrane or damaged tissue or be directly injected into the bloodstream (from a needle or syringe) for transmission to possibly occur. For the most part, it’s transmitted through sexual intercourse or sharing injectable drugs.
HIV does not live long outside the human body, and it’s not spread by toilet seats, saliva, tears, sweat or casual contact. It’s simply not a disease you can obtain from day-to-day contact in workplaces, schools or social settings.
Dr. William Cooke, Austin’s only physician who has transformed his family practice to meet the needs of those who are HIV positive, said White-Ginder’s presentation is important “to raise the awareness that there’s hope and there’s a lot of positive that can come out of tragedy.”
Austin’s story is still being written. Its chapters, however, should not be filled with ignorance and fear, but with education, acceptance and support.