Living with HIV is no fun.
Sounds like old news. Unfortunately, it isn’t, according to doctors and social workers who spoke Friday at the Westin Governor Morris hotel in Morristown.
People continue becoming infected–and dying of AIDS– because of ignorance or the mistaken notion that miracle drugs have reduced HIV to a garden-variety chronic ailment, said Laurie Litt-Robbins, executive director of New Jersey AIDS Services, which operates the Eric Johnson House in Morristown.
Chris, 29, is living at that treatment shelter, trying to get his life back on track through a combination of HIV medications and counseling.
In the video clip he describes coming out as a gay teenager and being rejected by his mother. Loneliness and despair drove him to crystal meth–a drug that erased his pain. High on the drug, he engaged in unprotected sex and contracted HIV. The ostracism only got worse. His family doctor recoiled in fear and threw him out of his office, he said.
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Although New Jersey has one of the nation’s best programs for treating low-income individuals with HIV, infection rates among women of color and young gay men in Newark are higher than in some African countries where AIDS is considered a crisis, said Dr. Renee Frankel, an expert on infectious diseases at Morristown Memorial Hospital and the Family Health Clinic of Morristown.
“A lot has to do with alcohol and drugs. People aren’t as careful when they’re under the influence,” theorized Mike Kelly, a gay member of the Gay-Straight Alliance at the County College of Morris.
“It’s got to be taught better,” he said. “People are afraid to give everyone the hard truth. A lot of sex ed classes center around abstinence. They don’t talk enough about what happens to people when they have sex, what the risks are.”
The event was a fund-raising breakfast for New Jersey AIDS Services, a nonprofit that provides transitional housing, counseling and support services for HIV-positive homeless people. It was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.
Over the last year New Jersey AIDS Services has seen its client roster spike by 52 percent, to 150 individuals, with only a 13 percent increase in its $800,000 operating budget, said Laurie Litt-Robbins, who rattled off a string of sobering numbers:
- New Jersey trails only New York, Florida, Texas and California in reported cases of HIV infection
- Minorities account for 77 percent of all New Jersey residents living with HIV/ AIDS.
- More than 7,350 people in New Jersey are estimated to be HIV-positive without knowing it.
- Some 34 percent of new infections occur in people under age 34.
- Twenty-seven percent of adults mistakenly think HIV can be spread by sharing a glass of water.
- Fourteen percent incorrectly believe the virus can be contracted from a swimming pool.
But the number that stings Laurie the most is 42. Glancing at a memorial table covered by red candles and photographs, she choked up while explaining that 42 clients have died from AIDS since her organization started in 1994.
“AIDS almost has become normalized, like poverty and homelessness,” she said. “It’s almost acceptable–but it’s not. It’s not okay for someone to be homeless, or to live in poverty, or to have AIDS.”
