TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1998

World observes ravages of AIDS

By Andrea Makshanoff

On-Line Forty-Niner

Church bells will ring 18 times today in observance of World AIDS Day, once for every year of the AIDS epidemic.

In a single minute of ringing and in every other minute of the day, five more young people ages 10 to 24 will acquire the AIDS virus, said the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Today marks the 11th annual World AIDS Day, a public health initiative launched in the United States and now observed by 190 countries, including the United States, to bring attention to the fact that there are 30 million people worldwide infected with HIV and AIDS, an American Association for World Health said.

With more than 50 percent of the world's 5.8 million new HIV infections yearly occurring in young people between the ages of 10 and 24, this year's theme, Be a Force for Change, seeks to involve young people in HIV prevention and information, UNAIDS said.

In the United States, although there is a decrease in the number of new AIDS infections annually in young people ages 15 to 24, AIDS-related illnesses are their sixth leading cause of death, the Centers for Disease Control said.

On the Cal State Long Beach campus, three Student Health Services student assistants in the 10-year-old peer educator program are being a force for change by giving presentations and testing for AIDS while working hard to make up for the August departure of health educator Mary Byron.

"Normally we do 15 to 30 [HIV/AIDS] presentations in the first month of classes for classes," said student assistant Sara Gershwin. "But I was lucky to do four this semester."

The number of the confidential AIDS tests given per month has recently been increased from about 50 to 75, Gershwin said. No student records stay on campus as they go to the Long Beach Health Department, she said.

"The campus has a low positivity rate but the health department wants me to stress that it is not representative of the community," Gershwin said. "Long Beach is sixth or seventh in AIDS cases for a city in the U.S., definitely in the top 10."

New York City holds the No. 1 spot in number of AIDS cases, Los Angeles is second and San Francisco is third, Gershwin said.

"The number of AIDS cases has decreased, but HIV is increasing," Gershwin said. "People are not converting to AIDS [as quickly]. They are staying HIV longer because the [new] medicines are keeping them from developing AIDS."

Statistics from the health department show that in Long Beach in 1997, nine 13- to 19-year olds were diagnosed with AIDS, but in the 20- to 29-year old group, that number leaped to 545. The number of AIDS diagnoses in the 30- to 39-year old group was three times higher at 1,675.

Since HIV can take 10 years to turn into AIDS, these numbers suggest that many are affected during their teen and young adult years, said Adama Dyoniziak, youth health education supervisor at the Long Beach Health Department.

Last year there was a concerted effort on part of the art department to share the day with the campus, said Karen Kleinfelder, professor in the art department.

"We started the day with students wrapping the Seventh Street sculptures and unwrapping them at the end of the day. And everyone who had shows in the various galleries agreed to have their artworks shrouded."

Kleinfelder said she thinks the school year starting and ending earlier this year could be the reason no one has planned any activities this World AIDS Day.