1990 SPECIAL REPORT: AIDS in Houston | Real Stories

in the late 70s and early 80s AIDS appeared in several countries around the world including the United States its origin was unknown and no one in government or in the medical profession had any idea of what was in store this pandemic disease has altered the life expectancy of millions of people throughout the world living with AIDS is horrible you never know how you're going to feel at any time time of any day you may wake up in the morning and you may feel fine you may make up in the morning and have 105° temperature and not be able to get out of bed Eights acquired immuno deficiency syndrome it is a disease caused by a unique retrovirus HIV human immuno deficiency Virus Houston recorded eight people with AIDS in 1981 the metropolitan area now has had over 5,000 cases of what is often called fullblown AIDS nationally over 170,000 diagnoses of AIDS have been reported and estimates are that over 1 million people are HIV positive it may take 10 years or longer from the onset of HIV infection to the symptoms of AIDS and even without symptoms an HIV positive person can spread the virus through semen vaginal secretions blood pregnancy and breast milk not going to happen to me it's not going to happen it's not going to happen it's not going to happen to me I was really shocked when I found out I was infected I didn't think for the next 60 minutes we will explore how Houston is is living with AIDS take some deep breaths through your mouth medical and education Specialists will outline the scope Trends and difficulties of the disease people with AIDS will share what life is like dealing with opportunistic infections fear pain and sometimes discrimination we will hear about the importance of early testing for HIV and we will discover how the costs of AIDS is growing through the pain of AIDS we will see the care and concern that is typical for our community Houston is a city living with AIDS AIDS is increasing everywhere um there have been 150,000 cases now diagnosed and over 880,000 Americans have died of AIDS that's 150,000 just in the United States the demographics are changing now in the northeastern cities on the eastern coast about 30 to 40% of AIDS cases are women uh significant increase in teenagers with AIDS my name is Dale I'm going to be 40 years old this year I live in the woodlands in Montgomery County I have two children and I'm a positive um I'm also asymptomatic which means I haven't had any um infections majorly infections I've been HIV positive for almost 5 years um basically I do pretty well um for some reason the virus has gone into my brain so I suffer real bad um headaches AIDS is rising sharply among American women they now make up 11% of people with AIDS Nationwide according to Dr Hislop in the United States and in Houston the demographics of AIDS are changing well in Harris County uh to date we have had reported to approximately 5,300 cases in the metropolitan statistical area which includes the counties around Harris County and if we correct for those cases that haven't been reported at this time there are more likely 7,500 cases and we'd expect by the end of 1992 or in early 1993 for this to double we are noticing that there is a change in the uh composition of our cases so to speak the cases used to be very heavily white we're seeing a smaller number of white uh cases of AIDS and an increasing number in the minority populations we're seen a decrease in the number that are being transmitted by male-to-male contact and a an increasing number in that are being transmitted through intervenience drug use and in heterosexual transmission the character of AIDS is changing in Houston people wonder why it's no surprise to me we've got teenage pregnancy we've got drug abuse we got venial diseases you combine all those together since we're leading the nation in these areas we've got AIDS people who were exposed to the virus and you can be exposed in many ways through sexual contact through sharing needles where you get blood to blood contact uh or by being born from a mother who HIV positive or infected um once exposed the body creates antibodies as it would to any infection whether it's measles or chickenpox and those antibodies for AIDS uh unlike other illnesses which fight the infection these antibodies serve just as markers that you've been exposed and someone who is exposed carries those those antibodies and if they are given a test they will show up positive the devastating effects of AIDS begin when the virus attacks the immune system HIV the AIDS virus infects the helper tea cells which help fight disease when HIV invades a cell its protein cell breaks apart the RNA core the genetic information for the virus is released a viral enzyme reverse transcriptase goes into action using the RNA as a guide it makes many chains of viral DNA each DNA chain has the potential to make new viruses this may happen immediately or may remain dormant until the te- cell is activated then when the te- cell is activated hundreds of new virus particles are reproduced these viral particles Bud from the t-c cell membrane and enter the bloodstream where they are carried through the body infecting te- cells and other susceptible cells to have a diagnosis of age you must have HIV infection damage to the immune system based on t- cell counts and an opportunistic infection it was 3 years ago that I was diagnosed with Capac saroma or as we call it KS it's a um it's a skin cancer it's a tumor little purple brown spots and lesions and I found the spot on my arm and and decided I needed to go in and find out what that was about and the the did a biopsy and it it came back as KS Capac saroma and then we did a test two weeks later to determine whether I was HIV positive or not and that came through um positive so I'm a person living with AIDS now for 3 years treatments are better now delaying the onset of AIDS for David robish show living with AIDS has been a daily battle well the fact that you're pretty much told you're going to die within a few years you know I think they gave you three to five now and 3 to 5 years of feeling pretty good is not bad about 3 to 5 years of you know in and out of the hospital and not really being able to feel all that great is a long time so it depends on on what's your years are having spent the last year in and out of the hospital David now learns from Dr cord he has another opportunistic infection atypical tuberculosis so we know something's going on that wasn't there before and again the atypical form of tuberculosis which is very common with severe immune suppression and HIV is a very good possibility but we can treat that if we can just identify it with a chronic immune suppress HIV infection is learning that we can use low doses of act retrovir which is our only prescription antiviral drug for HIV uh we use a t-per immune system is doing uh a perfectly normal count would probably be over 600 800 1,000 my husband and I were diagnosed HIV positive about 3 years ago and being diagnosed very in a very close time period together about a month apart um and with five children we realized that we had to take a a strong approach on this and fight it hi babe you ready to eat yeah okay we're going to get you up jod and Tony Rodriguez are one of the growing number of couples with AIDS leave straight first once my husband got sick and had to go on disability um soon after I became sick and was uh diagnosed full-blown AIDS and went on disability so then the income factor is real important in how to try and um survive on Social Security disability and readjust your life out here okay I need to scoot you back a ready good [Music] deal you hungry you didn't eat much breakfast but there you go okay put your knes together you got it okay your legs hurt your legs hurting you are your legs hurting you little bit little bit AIDS came into my life through being sexually transmitted from my husband to myself and it was also sexually transmitted from whoever he has no idea um who it could be to him and he carried it for years before he got sick you did good getting up usually it hurts your legs a lot more didn't seem to hurtt him as [Music] much my legs had hurt yeah but the bottom of your feet usually hurt a lot more usually just to stand on the ground you you know that hurts too much just to stand and it didn't seem to bother you that's good I figure out some way Merchant Seaman Jerry Miller was in ined with the virus for years before being diagnosed he and Thomas Street clinics Dr Thomas Kate discussed the infection I was diagnosed HIV in November of 1985 and when did you get sick diarrhea or just everything in general it was almost like a real severe flu feelings my whole body aching I was throwing up and uh I have no appetite extremely nauseous and I went into Portland Oregon to the Westside Clinic there and Dr Hu was the doctor that first suspected that I might have a problem with this HIV they check your T4 back then uh they did and at that time my T4 was pretty high it was like 700 and something was real high yeah and I think the last T4 I had here was 128 yeah it's on I don't know came down considerably I says well I'm going home to Florida cuz that's where my family and home are so I went down there for a while until I finally broke the news of them and they said get lost so I got lost so here I am in Houston this virus is finding its way into all walks of life Health Providers at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center are having to deal with the issue of AIDS since 1985 when the test the Elisa antibody test was first instituted we've tested about 950 HIV positive patients uh of those those about a third are being followed up in our Clinic a third have expired and a third uh are lost to follow up so we really don't know where they are uh I don't think we've seen the full impact of AIDS yet uh I think it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better here at the VA we're we're screened a little bit from part of the disease and that the vast majority of our veterans are male um speaking with my colleagues in the medical community there's an awful lot of female HIV infection that does not get the the attention I think it needs um for instance the county uh system is is becoming increasingly burdened by not only female uh patients infected by HIV but their children hi how you doing listen you're getting further along in the pregnancy almost 30 weeks 29 weeks how you feeling okay okay Kathy's here with me today you've met Kathy before and when did you first find out about that positive HIV yes about a month ago a month ago now looking back at things how do you think you got this a partner partner you never used any drugs no now have any of your partners ever used drugs no I know about one one did yeah okay we're going to switch sides Kathy got the paper tape when I first came to use and years ago had 10 Pati now I'm following over 50 patients HIV positive before I might see a patient one a month now a patient one a week I'm identifying I think we're on the tip of the iceberg another ominous Factor ominous factor is that my patients are getting younger and jelly on the belly my youngest patient that I delivered was 15 years old she was 14 when she got pregnant so this is unfortunately not uncommon so one of the problems that I've seen that is most ominous to me as an infectious disease obstetrician and as an adolescent gynecologist is survival sex especially with HIV we've been concerned about as as and I'm not talking about New York City I'm not talking about Miami La I'm talking about Houston Texas see that there's the baby's heart see we can make that a little bigger so we can all see it see see the baby's heartbeat M okay we can even maybe see how fast it's going I was 16 I got introduced to the streets 17 I found out I was pregnant I started prostitution 18 I started drugs iy Crystal cocaine my ex-husband didn't it why not I've been HIV positive known 3 years I believe I've had it five pregnant with him I know about 10 girls out on the streets who have it and they got it off prostitution about five of them caught when I got it they were acquaintance with me when I was I was working the streets Kim's children are fortunate they have escaped the virus the American Academy of Pediatrics says that nationally the rate of children with AIDS is growing by 200% a year the numbers predicted by the Centers for Disease Control the CDC of 10,000 to 20,000 symptomatic children actually may reflect in the decade to come the numbers of children with AIDS in this country but if you could tell almost 90% of children with AIDS contracted the virus from their mothers during pregnancy or at delivery your baby will have a positive blood test like yours when it's born but now the number say about a third of the babies will turn out to be true positives only testing 3 to 6 months afterwards out of those babies as we talked before about this 90% of them with no therapy die by the time they're age four but you may be in the lucky 2/3 of an unaffected baby or if it's affected now we have other therapies and treatments and we' talked however treatments and therapies for HIV are costly maybe the real issue is that HIV and infection is a costly disease it's a chronic illness with no cure at present um and it costs a good amount to provide medical care for patients with this infection according to George Washington University estimates for the total cost of AIDS care for one patient from diagnosis to death range from $40,000 to $80,000 however some Houston cases are well Above This figure we assess the overall cost of medical care for from our members in patient claims uh we are showing that the costs in Houston are far outpacing other cities cost and testing are related early testing for the human imuno deficiency virus HIV allows for Early Intervention which in turn reduces human suffering and costs there are things we can do now not to cure it but to to prolong their lives and to make their lives more effective and more efficient and and and more productive for a longer period of time so I think yes now definitely you should be tested okay Robert I've already told you about early diagnosis of HIV infection allows for use of medicated breathing treatments which help prevent pyus pneumonia one of the many opportunistic infections that plague people with AGS mouthpiece and breathe slowly and deeply in and out until all the foam's gone and all the M gone it takes about 20 to 30 minutes all right let me give that to you now I'm going to wear a mask and the reason I'm wearing a mask is it's not because of the HIV it's because of that there's a high incidence of tuberculosis and people who have HIV M and uh because we give you a breathing treatment it might make you cough so we need to wear a mask to do that ready all right I'm ready and the problem of tuberculosis is growing me in a study by Dr a over 30% of newly diagnosed TB patients were HIV positive you can simply sit next to someone in a room who has active TB and if they cough in your face or cough anywhere in a non-circulating air conditioning system you can catch TB from them as I say I dealt with a roommate of 15 years having died of a within about a matter of 3 months and I still didn't go take an HIV test I mean and it was I mean it had to be more than obviously that I was POS early treatment for HIV can only begin after early testing but I really didn't want to hear it I was really afraid of it HIV tests are given anonymously and confidentially the difference being with the former a number is assigned with confidential tests names are registered the city of Houston Department of Health does confidential tests Public Health rules would say that you should do confidential testing but uh as has been pointed out there leaks in the system whether it's the public or private and the anonymous testing has a very important important role Thomas odet Memorial Clinic known to many as montro Clinic offers Anonymous testing I think that anyone who's at risk um and is ever engaged in Risky activity uh or ever had sex with anyone who has been engaged in Risky activity should be tested when it comes to sexual activity the only person that we really know about for certain is ourselves there's one other thing that um U my name is Diana doesn't necessar my husband has AIDS we had been married 18 years before he came out about his bisexuality or his gay side and to say that it was devastating is to put it mildly because of fear Diana postponed testing for HIV for 3 years for her test she chose Planned Parenthood because the test procedures remain anonymous we want to let you have the opportunity to to decide who you want to know this or not um because it can affect you personally a lot so that's something to think about as well we don't use your name on anything what we do is we code everything with a code number according to your risk assessment it does appear that you have a few risks on here uh to be concerned about as far as coming in contact with the HIV virus um being that you're in a family situation and um people may make judgment on how you can and cannot get the virus and and not visit you or something of that nature um you cannot come in contact with the HIV virus through casual contact sharing a drink with someone um a toilet seat a mosquito bite um any kind of casual contacts it does you can't sneeze and get it okay it has to be transmitted through blood seaming and vaginal secretions and into your bloodstream in some respect all right we're going to just take a little bit of blood from your from your arm today um just a small vial tube and that's all we'll need to do all righty I think we have a good vein here Diana's blood sample is sent to the Texas Department of Health in Austin and we will know the results later it does take approximately 2 weeks for us to get the results back and you do need to come back in person in Houston most other HIV tests are done by the city of Houston Department of Health's HIV lab in our Laboratory we're specifically looking for the antib body that a person's immune system produces to the viral infection some of the data indicate that it could be uh months 17 months even longer perhaps even uh 20 months or more before anybody could be picked up conventionally uh it's thought that most people would produce antibody about 3 months or so after a particular exposure when blood samples arrive at the HIV lab the information is entered into a computer the samples are prepared for the first test for HIV the Eliza or enzymelinked immunosorbent assay because blood may be hazardous all lab professionals work carefully using universal precautions along with biohazardous flow hoods if the Eliza test is negative the blood sample is deemed free of HIV and the person with receives a negative report if the Eliza is positive for HIV antibodies a second Eliza is done if it's positive the Western block a more definitive test for HIV is performed on the blood sample as the results are compiled all blood tests noted in red on the computer screen are HIV positive some Research indicates that HIV antibodies do not show up in testing for 3 months or more after exposure this is called the window period a period when the blood supply may be at risk for HIV contamination since 1985 all donated blood is tested for HIV over 4,100 AIDS cases in the United States where transfusion transmitted the majority being before 1985 a woman we will call Cara is one of those cases after the trauma of losing a full-term baby at delivery hemorrhaging and receiving a blood transfusion Cara received another blow I healed up from having the baby and went home and went on with my life just like every day and I got real sick a year ago 89 and I mean sick instantly and when I went into the hospital they didn't even know whether I was going to come out or not and they ran all kinds of tests and for everything else Under the Sun and the only thing that was left was HIV test so we took it and it was positive but when the doctors came in and told me my test came back positive I know what a prize fighter feels like I really do I mean it was just like somebody had just beat me the blood supply in the Greater Houston area is as safe as is reasonably possible there are many safeguards that have been implemented to protect patients through the blood supply in this program multiply they are including one we have an anti-hiv test that was implemented in early early 1985 this test is extremely good it's about 99.9% effective and it's also very specific I think the best testimonial for the effectiveness of HIV screening tests and for the sort of U self- deferral that the blood banks use these days is that very few infe units of blood have been found uh to pass screening since uh the screening test was introduced in the spring of 1985 um certainly it's not a foolproof system and it is possible for a person who is HIV infected to donate blood and for that unit of blood to somehow reach the blood supply but the likelihood of that occurring is very very small ouch ouch it is completely safe to donate blood it is still called The Gift of life according to the Center for Disease Control it's estimated that one out of 100,000 units of blood is capable of transmitting HIV today primarily because of the window period although all the health experts we interviewed said the blood supply was safe all would pre- donate in non-emergency situations the autologus donation is uh that process by which a patient elects to to go and have some of their blood uh put aside prior to surgery and providing they don't need an excessive number of units of blood and that their their health is such that they can tolerate having uh blood removed prior to the surgery then they can in fact receive their own blood at the time of surgery and that is absolutely ideal that's the best way to go unfortunately for Cara the precautions for AIDS were not in place when she received her blood transfusion AIDS has meant pain and discrimination in her life oh I have to be in Disguise because my husband has a very public job and his boss said that if it became knowledge they'd have to either fire him or ship him out to someplace unknown because they don't want any panic in the company they deal with the public constantly and public opinion is still really bad discrimination is also seen toward children with AIDS yes I have noted discrimination in children with AIDS in our vicinity in H Houston um not to the same uh degree as so clearly um was uh noted in the Florida case where children were asked to leave their community in a not too gentle way but in more subtle ways perhaps U parents losing leases with no good explained reason um children not invited to birthday parties or for overnight stays things of that nature for Mike Co the guilt over being infected with HIV was difficult you know guilt what did I do to deserve this or you know what was you know why am I so bad that I got you know some severe punishment like this some have called AIDS a punishment from God I don't think that that aids is God's curse uh the target population in our country has for whatever reason been the male homosexual population that is not as true in other cultures where the the disease and the epidemic is older I don't see how you can have a world view and have that particular uh perspective uh I find it very hard to believe in a God uh who would do that uh to people I think um I think of course AIDS is an eminently preventable disease uh if you want to talk about safe sex if you want to talk about abstinence uh if you want to talk about uh um refusal to take drugs and those kinds all of the things that really cause it it is preventable of course and but that's that's a totally different issue it seems to me from putting a uh a theological interpretation on it or a spiritual interpretation on it uh that says God is somehow using it to get back at [Music] somebody roll up our sleeves and take Shades cuz we're to give you some facts about a education is is a key factor in the prevention of AIDS and for ending discrimination toward people with AIDS children seem to understand this best has heard in the AIDS drama program at the Cho Family [Applause] [Music] Center about AIDS the facts about AIDS didn't help Daniel's situation he believes being HIV positive cost him his job and insurance when he confided in his employer and when I found out that that I was HIV positive I went and confided in her and U she placed more importance on the company than she did on our friendship and uh told our the owners of the company and uh I was more or less uh railroaded out of the company I wasn't actually fired but I was it was they made life very uncomfortable um so that I was I was more or less forced to to leave well we've we've seen all of that um a lot of times people's uh insurance companies when they find out that they're HIV positive their rates their monthly rates start going up immediately and they've I've seen them go up to over6 7 $800 a month for uh monthly insurance premiums I gave away my car when people with AIDS lose jobs and insurance the costs spread to everyone the national Center for Health statistics report that public costs for AIDS care Rose from 25 to 41% for 1984 to 1987 while private insurance share declined from 49 to 43% as the epidemic spreads this trend is expected to continue treatment for AIDS are expensive one method that increases charges to patients and insurance companies for Medical Treatments is called unbundling um we see the unbundling of U charges that is taking a specific procedure and breaking it down into the smaller components and thereby being able to charge for each of those components which will increase the fees rather than a single fee for one procedure it was thought that Home Health Care would be the answer to reducing health care costs in our country however estimates are that the tab for home infusion therapy home nursing care and Medical Treatments vary by 700% Nationwide and markups of 250% on Pharmaceuticals aren't unusual David has a million dooll insurance policy much of which has been used his home healthare now runs over $600 a day Medical Care is expensive and some people with certain illnesses uh require more Medical Care uh with with David he he requires a lot of injury in his medicine uh subclavian catheter care he requires feeding uh through his his IV line but the alternative for him is death uh and I'm not ready to give him that an hour long sake okay because once you catch AIDS it's all over man you know and in and in the black community man especially among our black young but nothing can measure the cost of AIDS in terms of human suffering and although education doesn't always change Behavior it is seen as the main force in stopping the spread of AIDS in Houston this public health mandate lies with the city of Houston's Department of Health and Human Services when the city fails the hospital District must provide costly care which means we all we contract with oh about a almost a dozen and a half organizations to do prevention and they have a variety of modalities that they do uh speakers bureaus AIDS hotlines that you can call uh people appearing on various uh media events whether TV radio shows um people speaking throughout the community in schools and congregations community- based organizations social fraternal Civic organizations um a whole variety of Education activities U that go far beyond just getting matters for instance into the newspaper and television the city of Houston is not doing enough for uh the AIDS patients uh primarily because uh in the areas where we're seeing the increase and that's in the minority area drug abusing area that there is limited uh educational resources available for those uh for those patients or or clients and so I think there really needs to be a lot more emphasis on education and Outreach for that for that particular population we have not done enough Outreach period in Houston we we have a $15 million prevention problem and we have four five6 million dollar here in the area that we're trying to use to combat it I don't think there's uh any question in my mind that the city of Houston Department of Health and and Human Services uh is not doing uh enough at this point in education in any of the communities that exist uh and this may be beyond their ability financially to to do so I I don't know the Staffing wise they may not be able to do it but the simple fact is there's virtually nothing being done in the gay and bisexual Community specifically in education to some degree Houston has suffered with some homophobia but uh I do believe that uh the citizens now are much more educated than they were in the very beginning new research shows that Outreach education to the young homosexual population is vital 41% of 86 20 to 24 year olds in a San Francisco study were HIV positive this trend is feared for Houston people in the United States are just burying their heads in the sand they're saying it's going to go away in fact some people think AIDS is a great disease we're getting rid of the undesirable populations they don't realize that this disease is going to affect all of us I have seen so many people now who said fine let them all die you know there's no problem and then suddenly their nephew or their brother or their cousin shows up with AIDS I would hope that the people of God learn and and all people for that matter learn from this disease um an extra bit of compassion uh that that the real need always of U of those who live on this planet uh is to Bear some responsibility for one another uh to find the places where people are hurting and if there's any way we can address that hurt to do it to give handsone Ministry um and not just words about our compassion Community activist David fer feels that attitudes haven't changed quick enough the point is the government is not doing enough with this disease and I'll say what I've always said that if this disease affected other people that the government would drop billions of dollars to get a cure for it right in the beginning and it's gone on now for 10 years Years and we're tired of it Texans like uh our citizens in other states uh are really going to have to deal uh much more effectively with this issue immediately between now and certainly the next few years uh if we have some federal development uh support coming from the federal level that'll be very helpful meantime we have to through whatever resources we have um do everything we can to try to respond and to try to get uh um whatever services are needed whatever and the medical care services needs are projected to increase the cost of treatment for patients with HIV infection that are symptomatic full-blown AIDS at the district ran the taxpayers approximately 12.8 million in fiscal year this recent fiscal year ending March 31 1990 that number is going to increase potentially by the year 1995 in excess of $90 million at the district you you have to be a Harris County resident to receive services but what we have seen is that approximately 40% of our patients move from outside of Harris County into Houston gain residency and then seek Services Jerry Miller became eligible for Hospital District care but finds supporting himself difficult as a person who is HIV positive how do you exist from day to day our system is not set up where people who can't work anymore receive a real substantial income I receive $420 a month from Social Security and $35 a month from the food stamp program now after I pay my rent which is 200 a month and then my electric bill and my gas bill and that doesn't leave too much funds left for the reg remainder of the month so um just speaking for myself and a lot of people are in the same shoes I am and even worse as far as me taking care of myself physically around the apartment here I do that pretty well well looks as though you're sustaining okay you got all these pills in front of you what what do they what do they do for you well um this here's uh the uh retrovir that's the a that's supposed to fight off the um the AGS virus I've been full-blown AIDS uh and I'm real proud of the fact that I'm still here I've seen all my friends pass away my old friends I mean they're all gone now there Jim hild he's up there in the white box that's his remains there on that top shelf bookshelf and U he was one of my last long time friends these are people that I knew for 20 years it's always a question that because this damn disease is so unpredictable in a sense you know and when you get it there's no cure for it I mean what do you think of your future what do you think of what oh I don't think that I have a future until it is aure what I have is day by day to I am here today uh it's it's very common for me to think every day well when I go to bed tonight will I wake up in the morning because um a lot of us don't they just go to bed and simply pass on their sleep which would be the ideal way to go [Music] on Cheryl dear the manager of jer's apartment checks frequently on her HIV positive occupants there should be no fear because you can't get it from touching you can't get it from hugging you can't get it from uh embracing it's a Insidious disease that's killing people long before their time and if I can give what little Comfort I can then I've done what I need to do since the AIDS epidemic began Houston's bearing Memorial United Methodist Church has responded one service they offer is dental care for people with HIV infection and full-blown AIDS how does the dentist protect himself from a patient who has AIDS there are several things that the dentist can do number one the dentist needs to wear barrier protection which would include gloves mask a face shield or some kind of eye protection and um an isolation gown to prent to prevent splattering of blood getting on the dentist's clothes also the dentist needs to be extremely careful in handling sharp instruments I mean this is probably the most dangerous thing that I do here at the clinic each set of instruments that are used uh they're scrubbed with hot soapy water they're put into an ultrasonic uh for 10 minutes and after that the instruments are dried and uh heat sterilized in a chem clave which is a vapo sterile type situation with very high heat and high pressure and we monitor that sterilization process on a monthly basis it's basically what all Dental practices should be using um we they really should follow the worst case scenario a lot of dentists and other health health professionals are very concerned or fearful about Contracting AIDS from their patients and I would like it to be known that I have been working here at this clinic on nothing but patients who are infected with the AIDS virus or have full blind loone AIDS and I have tested negative every 6 months that I've been working here and that's for 3 years although the chances are slim concerns have surfaced over catching AIDS or HIV infection from one of the over 5800 us healthcare workers infected with the AIDS virus the Texas Medical Association is debating that now what we basically are saying is if you if a physician or dentist knows that they're HIV infected that they should not do invasive procedures that might possibly exchange blood let us pray ask for volunteers at bearing Care Center guidelines for Physicians seem far away as they meet the daily needs of growing numbers of people with AIDS they provide free Services food and most importantly emotional support Community leader Nelly Joyce punch is concerned about the children the numbers that we are receiving now of the infected people and those who have been identified or tremendous also we're finding that they're very young people that are involved how are we going to do something about them it is imperative that we get this information to them this particular location is in the heart of drugs and all the other ills and as you know drugs and AIDS kind of go together all right all right you don't play but you be the judge you say and Mr handy here has attempted to address that by involving as much of the community as he possibly could you know most of you know about me in the type of life you know I used to be the king of living Road where no one could get in the drugs L and they came through me and I was the Kingpin in the fifth W and the third W area but after serving my time 30 something years in in prison I realized what I had done you cannot talk about drugs with and don't talk about AIDS you can't talk about AIDS don't talk about drugs so if you contact this virus there's no cure for this virus right so there the main thing going to happen What death sexually transmitted we got that good okay what else IM system do that again affects the immune system affects the immune system what Jim Anderson and eileene Hager from the AIDS Foundation Houston spend their time educating youngsters throughout the city they face the spread of a with honest and direct talk to teens we're going to talk to you today about AIDS okay how you get it how you don't and how you can take care of yourself what's the other word for no sex AB absence he always says abstinence but you're right it's abstinence some classes tell me it's obstinance that's true however for some people we do know that they are going to make the choice to have sex so what we tell you is to give you information if indeed you choose that the AIDS virus is much much smaller than sperm and will pass right through an animal skinned condom latex it has to be made out of rubber if you're going to be counting on this to save your life use what's going to work and use it right they're not 100% but when used properly this is the big if when used properly they are about 97% effective people with HIV can look just as healthy as anyone else you can't tell us someone is infected with the virus just by looking at them in fact the person you're with right now now might have HIV talk to your partner about HIV learn how to prevent HIV infection call 1 800342 AIDS okay Chris what do you have over on this side this is Vietnamese spinach Glenn Stevens director of body positive a group that encourages early testing and treatment for HIV offers hope that's why we stress early intervention testing and early intervention uh the earlier you can get on top of it the better off you're going to be and here at body positive we have an exercise program uh with Mary L galantino who is a physical therapist and she is probably about the most highly motivated individual you could ever come across and and it is our belief that you've got to keep your body as healthy as possible to to battle this disease I think after going through this initial one knowing that she may hear news that could change her future Diana returns to Planned Parenthood for the results of her HIV test I do want to let you know once again that all of this is completely confidential and none of this information will be re revealed to anybody else okay results did come back and they came back non-reactive which means that's negative okay that means you are not infected at this time with the HIV virus okay I just think a great sense of relief good good did did you have a real rough 2 weeks yeah it was my mind kept going back and forth trying to portray what if what if all this time I've been telling my mom she needed to go get tested and when she finally told me that she was going to I was really scared it was just so much easier to believe that she was negative than to face that she probably was positive um she came to my school and she pulled me out of my second pering class and I had to walk down to the office and I knew when she was there that she was negative because she wouldn't have come to tell me at school sometimes I just feel like why does God do these things to me you know I lose my friends I'm going to lose my dad and then this came along and I'm going to have my mom around thank God if you could say something to your dad what would you like to say to him um that I love him and I respect him for fighting and I hope he'll continue to fight for David the fight against AIDS is getting more difficult he has 24hour nursing care his prognosis is guarded but he maintains his strong sense of [Music] humor are you content dealing with this where you are now not at all yeah no uh it's better and I can appreciate that and I try to appreciate that often but I just I want to go much further back to normal than this and I think I can uh you keep reading things that that uh you know are merical cures and uh of course you hope that that will be discovered before it takes you yeah uh but it's kind of a strange feeling to live with more of a realization that you may not be here tomorrow and we all realize that it's true for all of us it's been true for me since the day I was born but I I have to be realistic about the fact that it's more likely that it might be me rather than you you're older than I you got a good sense of humor still facing all this stuff you have to keep that too I mean gosh it's so easy to be depressed and down if death was the thing that was going to be the only thing left I'm sure you've thought about that what is what is it yeah I don't I'm ready uh I had a roommate that died about a year and a half ago and that prepared me even more because I saw that it wasn't so horrible and I did not fear about uh I've enjoyed living very much and would like to continue to accepting death on a cross by dying he freed us from unending death jod is learning to slow down and take care of herself she continues on medication for AIDS and finds peace and spiritual support she and Tony received communion from Reverend Annette Jones several weeks Tony died Tony this is the body and blood of Christ given for you because God loves you for your healing and your to fill you with the awareness that God is with you and you're not alone thanks be to God Amen let us pray almighty God we give you thanks that you have refreshed us at your table that you fill us with your lifegiving food and that you send your angels to have charge over us us so that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace we ask oh God that you continue to strengthen Tony and jod spirit that you fill them with goodness and light and life and that you lift them up joining them with your spirit giving them the freedom of your spirit the freedom to live the freedom to Die the freedom to love the freedom to receive love we ask this in the Name of Love amen amen the story we have told in the last 60 Minutes is a story of the Houston Community it's a sad story a pregnant woman who is HIV positive David who is still fighting to survive jod who held her husband while he died and at the same time is treating her own ailments Jerry The Merchant Sean who came ashore and at his family's request got lost the wife who lived in fear for years not knowing and the officials whose hands are tied because of lack of funds this is everyone's story everyone's responsibility what has been described is a portion of what is a life-threatening disease that will eventually involve millions of people as a society we must rid ourselves of this infirmity and the bigotry surrounding it if we don't

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Id: _JnFL3pledg

Length: 58min 23sec (3503 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2023