by Emily Heagany

Aside from still being unable to say the "C" word (condom) in some public schools, the Utah AIDS Foundation has made great strides in their 20 years of caring by being able to evolve as the needs of the community and clients have shifted due to the changes in HIV and AIDS management and awareness.

Stan Penfold, Executive Director of UAF, joined the ranks in 1989 as a volunteer and describes those times as, "really discouraging ..." There were times when, "as soon as you'd get to know somebody really well they were dead ..." Also referring to those times, Dr. Kristen Ries said, "In the beginning, diagnosis:  18 months ... [then] you were dead - some people even faster."  Funerals were often more than once a week.  With the treatment options available today, there isn't even one a month for Dr. Ries and her associates to attend for an HIV or AIDS patient.

Amazing changes in disease management and treatment options have been discovered which help control the virus, enabling people to live healthier lives.  Discoveries such as protease inhibitors like Saquinavir, the first in a classification of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), aim to work to such an effect.

People with HIV/AIDS are now coming to the Utah AIDS Foundation to live, rather than die.  Those infected even have the ability of having children free of HIV and AIDS.  According to Dr. Ries, "...there's no reason ... not to have children and expect to live until that child grows up and maybe even be grandmothers ..."   

Through all of the benefits such advancements make possible, there also has become a sense of complacency that we see on the prevention side.  Despite the fact that HIV is a preventable, terminal disease, there has recently been an increase in numbers of new HIV infections.  According to Ries, most of these infections are found in young people who have, "forgotten what it was like when everybody was dying ... [who] don't remember a world without HIV."
 
Twinkle Chisholm, active in the television and film-making industry, was in Los Angeles during the early days of the epidemic, "before there was even a name [for HIV/AIDS]."  Chisholm has been an active voice in the fight against HIV and AIDS - emphasizing prevention through education as the key.  In referring to the obstacles of educating the youth within the state of Utah, Chisholm said, "I would tell a young person today that the disease is 100% preventable ... There doesn't need to be any moral judgment about abstinence or sex ... all they need is the facts."

 In order to get those facts across to the youth and public today it's important for us to normalize the discussion of HIV.  Just like it's an expectation that when you get in your car you will wear your seat belt.  It's an expectation that when you have sex you will use a condom.  It should be as common and as normal as talking about safe driving.  The more comfortable people are with talking about it, the better able they will be to learn about prevention, "... until we can do that, the disease will keep spreading," says Ries.
 
In addition to teaching and prevention, UAF has begun to concentrate more on holistic ways to increase HIV and AIDS awareness through presenting general issues relating to health, such as the Gay Men's Health Summit, the various lecture series, and avenues in which people are encouraged to help each other and take care of themselves in order to put HIV within an appropriate context for today's clients and community.

 There is such a dedicated force driving the awareness of these issues and UAF for many of the same reasons.  According to Dr. Ries, "HIV ... makes such a difference to the whole society and we can't let that go.  We still have to keep going, just like UAF keeps going ... because the epidemic's not over, not even close."  Twinkle Chisholm keeps involved because, "...until there's a cure, all we have is education."  Because it's 100% preventable and because it continues to affect our culture, our society and people we care about, we all have to aid in the education, awareness, and teaching of AIDS and HIV in our communities.  According to Stan Penfold, "...we all have a dedication to this issue and a commitment to make sure that nobody else becomes infected ..."  Through education we have the power to control the spread of HIV and AIDS, but it takes initiative to get the word out and to put those preventative measures to practice.
 

Emily Heagany has been a Volunteer for UAF for more than a year and is currently enrolled as a student at the University of Utah College of Nursing.