HIV/AIDS Stigma in Georgia

From this summer in the Columbus Georgia paper:

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HIV/AIDS Stigma Adds Difficulty to Epidemic: Groups Hope to Take Fear Out of Testing, Promote Education and Treatment

By Danee Attebury, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.

Jun. 27–Mention HIV or AIDS in many circles and it’s a conversation stopper.

“A lot of people, especially here in the Bible Belt, don’t want to talk about it,” said Stephany Washington, executive director of Homeward Bound.

And that makes testing for the spreading malady especially tough.

But groups in Columbus and Phenix City today are encouraging anyone who could possibly have contracted the disease to take advantage of a test to determine their HIV status — a test without fees or needles.

The Columbus Health Department and Homeward Bound, in collaboration with East Alabama AIDS Outreach, will offer free tests in observance of National HIV Testing Day, started 12 years ago. The organizations will test using the OraSure method, which uses DNA from saliva instead of blood. Test results come back in about two weeks, representatives of the Columbus Health Department and Homeward Bound said.

Epidemic era

Roughly 180,000 to 280,000 people in the U.S. are HIV positive and don’t know it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Georgia has had 29,716 reported cases of HIV — including 1,031 in Columbus — and the state has recorded 15,024 AIDS deaths since 1981, according to the Georgia AIDS Coalition.

Alabama has had 14,431 reported cases of HIV and 5,209 AIDS deaths since 1982, the first year statistics were kept, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

“We want people to know their status,” Washington said. “We really want people to not let their guard down.”

She said her organization, based in Phenix City and funded by a grant from the Alabama Department of Public Health, offers pre- and post-test counseling, a support group, and free male and female condoms.

Counseling offered

Homeward Bound counsels clients on risky behaviors, she said, even if the clients’ HIV tests come back negative. It also offers extensive counseling to clients who test HIV positive. A program manager trained in counseling talks to clients about medication options and the psychological turmoil that follows a positive test result, Washington said.

She encourages HIV positive clients to attend Homeward Bound’s support group, she said.

“There’s nothing more comforting than to be in a group with like people,” she said.

However, she said not many people attend the support group because of the stigma against people with HIV.

Not only are many people in the region uneasy talking about AIDS or HIV, but many businesses in Alabama don’t allow Homeward Bound to do outreach work in their establishments, she said.

“The hiding of the disease is what kills (patients) faster than the actual disease” because they delay getting treatment, she said.

The treatment for AIDS is simpler than it was years ago, she said, because the many medications HIV patients take have been combined into a smaller number of pills.

The medication for HIV may be simpler, but it is very expensive, said Marilyn Swyers, manager of East Alabama AIDS Outreach. Her organization does HIV prevention education, offers support groups, helps patients obtain medical care and maintains a housing campus for homeless people infected with HIV, she said.

About 60 percent of her clients have no insurance, and Medicaid copayments can be too expensive for them. Her organization tries to help these clients get medicine through drug companies’ patient assistance program, which provide medication for free to those who qualify, she said.

“It eats up a lot of our case managers’ time,” she said.

There’s a long list of people waiting for enrollment in the patient assistance programs, she said, and Alabama has the longest waiting list in the nation.