Manuel Veloria
Over 40,000 people are being infected by HIV/AIDS in United States each year, and more than 25 million people have died from AIDS since 1981. Half the people having HIV infection every day is under the age of 25, and as of 2005, California is ranked number two in cases of AIDS involving young adults.
Starting from Oct. 22, Pierce College will be holding HIV/AIDS awareness on campus
“I think it’s a good opportunity,” says Kenn Rafanan who has been attending Pierce for a year and who is also anticipating the HIV/AIDS week. “Colleges always get new students every year and students who are coming from high-school may have the idea of HIV and AIDS but they don’t have the specific details and knowledge of it…this event will be good way to educate me and my fellow schoolmates.”
It is organized by Beth Benne, Director of Student Health Center, and Bernadine Pregerson, professor of Microbiology at the Life Sciences Dept.
During the event, the school will be having free testing on campus, also promoting and educating students so they can get involved in the fight for on-going pandemic.
Free testing will begin from Mon., Oct. 24 until Thurs., Nov. 2 on campus
Also, correspondent speakers will come to address students during the event. Dr. William Schwartzman, an Infectious Diseases Specialist at West Los Angeles VA Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, will lecture on the history and socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on Wednesday Oct. 24., in room physics 914 at 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
As well speakers from Being Alive, a non-profit membership organization operated by and for people living with HIV/AIDS will be on campus during the event. Teachers who have had requested and made appointments will have their classroom attended by the speakers from the organization.
“We are continually handing out flyers to teachers who are interested in having speakers go in their class,” said Loralyn Frederick, Student Health Center Assistant, who’s seeking more teachers to participate on the upcoming event.
This event is also intended to raise students’ awareness on HIV/AIDS because of the dropping rate of students not being vigilant and tentative on the serious deadly disease that is growing, not only in the nation, but world-wide.
“There’s been a decline on testing over the years; we used to test almost 300 students in a four day period, now we’re lucky to test a 100,” says Benne who’s compassionate and concerned for the declination of students getting involve on this serious matter.
According to Benne, the constant drop on young adult being un-aware of HIV/AIDS is because the issue is becoming an “every day topic” where people who has had contracted the disease grew dependency on new drug treatments to suppress it and prolonged their life with the virus.
“It wasn’t the headline topic that it was in the early 80s where people were dying in a daily basis, the survival rate is wonderful today…but there’s still no cure,” Benne explaining why young adults are decrementing from the significance of the pandemic.
The one and only treatment for HIV and AIDS are called an antiretroviral treatment. It consist both daily intake of drugs and therapy to take it more effective, and this is called Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) which involves three or more drugs taken.
“The trouble is people say when they get infected by the disease they can just get the drugs…but you’re only adding 20 years of life expectancy,” Pregerson explaining the consequences of the treatment . “I had many friends who have died…they were on every kind of antiviral drugs, some are very toxic, some are intolerable, and they have all side-effects, it’s not the solution.”
Also, women are more in greater higher risk of acquiring the virus than men. According to Prof. Pregerson, women are more vulnerable than men. It is about seven times more riskier if an infected man giving an uninfected woman the disease in a single heterosexual contact than an infected woman passing it to an uninfected man.
“There’s an increase risk among women of all age, all socioeconomic level, all racial and ethnic groups,” said Pregerson. “Women in general are vulnerable to HIV and aids from a single infectious encounter because of their biological anatomy.”
Above all, the number of HIV/AIDS cases in America is roughly 1 million to 1.2 million of people living with HIV or have AIDS based on Pregerson estimation.
In the research done by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 44 percent are MSM (male to male relationship), 34 percent in heterosexual and 17 percent on IDU (Injection Drug Use).
“People don’t take these events into consideration enough,” says Justin Quater, a student majoring in business. “It should be publicized and commercialized more so students in the campus should take it seriously.”
For more comprehensive information and statistics on HIV/AIDS, visit AVERTing HIV and AIDS (http://www.avert.org/) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/).