AIDS Lifeline

It's just a terrifying feeling that goes over me that they said, you know, it can be so communicable. My biggest fear about AIDS is that I might catch it. The risk of getting AIDS through heterosexual contact is growing. AIDS has swept like a prairie fire. Sometimes I think why me? No other epidemic has reduced such staggering numbers. I can't believe how many people are dying. When should you consider getting tested and why? I just wish it was a bad dream and it would all go away. The more you know about AIDS, the more you can protect yourself and your family. Good evening.

I'm Carol Randolph and welcome to a very important show. This evening we're going to talk about AIDS, our title is AIDS Lifeline and I'd like to introduce to you the members of our panel. They are James McLaurin. He's a volunteer for the Whitman Walker Clinic. He was diagnosed with having AIDS two years ago. Sitting next to him is Patricia Kelly. She's a training director of the Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry. She's been practicing nurse for nine years in the hospice care where she works with AIDS patients. David Brubek, he's a founder and executive director of the Maryland AIDS Foundation. He started his organization three and a half years ago after a family member died of AIDS. And last but certainly not least Dr. Wayne Grease, he's a medical director in the Infectious Disease Department at Howard University Hospital. It's all given a big round of applause, too. All right, we're going to get started. Let me just see just where we are right here by asking just how dumb are we when it comes to AIDS? How dumb are we?

We'll all take a turn on this one. I think we can probably all answer this. I think the biggest challenge for me as a training person, as a person who is constantly teaching AIDS, is to realize that you constantly have to start over and go back to the beginning. That there are incredible numbers of people who do not know the real facts, which are very, really very simple. And instead are sort of floundering around in a whole mess of misinformation. I think if I have one piece of advice that I give to just about everybody I work with, it's if you hear a fact about AIDS, check the source. There are very reliable sources for information about AIDS, public health departments, obviously. But there are a lot of people who get their information about AIDS from what some of us call the supermarket medical journals. Exactly. I've heard, yeah, off the toilet stews, off a glass of you can't sit around, you can't share foods or any of these other kinds of things. Okay.

Before we really get into this, let me just say that there's some people we want to think right off the bat who are responsible for making this program possible. And I believe we'd like to get to that if that's coming up right now, is that it? The people who are responsible for underwriting our program, they're not ready for that. Let me go on and continue with this. All right. If you say check the source, let me ask you doctor, how should we do this? Should we test everybody? I mean, this is something that's been kind of put around that are only those who are in high risk. But there are people who are saying, well, James J. Kilpatrick, let me just quote him. We're overreacting, only a small group of people are really involved with all of this. Who should we test and how? Well, testing is an issue all by itself. And I think we know enough now about this disease or the whole problem of AIDS that we know enough to protect ourselves. I think the trouble or difficulty is in getting a message across to those who most need it. And your question earlier about how dumb are we, depends on what group you're talking to, how much they've been targeted before. I don't think that we can say that we need to test everyone if I think it's a waste of time and money.

I think the same messages that we now give can be used for those who are at risk, those who are infected, and those who think they may be infected. Now, when you say just that group, isn't it moving out into the heterosexual population? Shouldn't all of us have some basic foundation, David? Well, you see, it's not who you are or why you are, whether you're gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic, poor, rich. It's what you do and how you do it, the determines whether you're going to stay healthy or you're going to get sick with this darn thing. And so whether it spreads here, spreads there, my goodness, it's throughout the world now. It's in every sector of our society. And what's marvelous about what we know is we know enough to protect ourselves. There will be people who survive because they know how to protect themselves. But that cause with some very explicit language. We have to really talk. Well, we need to know. I can tell you. Yeah. Do we want to cover our ears? Do we say, not our children? Or do we say, for example, I'm not gay, I'm not an intravenous drug user. So why should I even worry about that?

What's the likelihood of me running into someone who's going to have AIDS? Well, in this area, in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, up and down the east close in our major urban areas, it's now estimated that one out of 30 men, one out of 75 women, are infected with the AIDS virus. And you see, when Jack Kilpatrick was talking about how many people have full-blown AIDS, that is not the true measurement of the epidemic. The true measurement of the AIDS epidemic is, how many of our neighbors are infected, how many of these neighbors are infecting others, and don't know it. And number three, how many are in danger, because of their activities of being infected. And that is a whole lot of folks. It was years ago, I was infected. I had pneumocystis pneumonia. I didn't know I was infected with the virus. I mean, my life just continued as, you know, like everything was all right, up until the time I got pneumocystis pneumonia. And a lot of, in a lot of cases, that's the way it happens. Unless you know your antibody status, you don't know. You just, unless you have gone to the doctor.

Were you in one of those high-risk groups to be concerned about? Yes. Was it that you just, the symptoms didn't jar something or what, or you didn't have the information or something? Well, I had a lot of information, but what I saw on television was gay white men, which was wrong, you know, it was totally wrong. And I really kind of believed that I was a victim of that. I am not a victim of that. Explain what you mean by that? The only information I had was that this affected gay white men. It doesn't bother me because I'm black, or it doesn't bother me because I'm not gay. It doesn't bother me because I'm not this, or I'm not that. AIDS is a virus that will attack blood. Everybody that lives has blood. And if you have blood run into your system, believe me, the virus loves it. So nobody's free of this because you don't know what another person has done or where that person has been.

That person may not know, or the person that they will with does not know. Okay. I've been shown a sign about the phone number. I'm not sure if this is the one that we're supposed to get. 3, 3, 2, AIDS have individuals call 3, 3, 2, A-I-D-S and get right on the end and call us on this so we can talk to each other about it. All right. We say you didn't know you were in a high risk group. You didn't test yourself and tell the symptoms became full blown, or at least enough to why going for medical treatment. Did you want to add something with that David? Yeah. Let's throw in the trash can. There's whole myth of high risk groups. There are only high risk activities. And those high risk activities are unprotected sex, whether it's vaginal or anal or oral sex, or the sharing of needles and syringes and shooting up drugs. You know, cocaine, smacks, speed, heroin, whatever. Or shooting up steroids like so many of our young athletes doing. And of course, so many of our wonderful young women who are infected are in great danger of giving the virus to their unborn baby. Well, that's how it's done. It's activities.

It isn't groups. All right. Doctor, if that's the case then, where are we on this in terms of medically, if I test, as with James was saying right here, we have a test done. Let me bring up another issue, but I'm sure it's one that you have to be concerned with. Who do you tell? I know legally and ethically you're supposed to only tell the person who is there to be tested. But what about, as David said, it's just activities, those spouses that might be associated with it, be they male or female, how are the significant other, I love that term, significant other, what do you feel about that, that particular dilemma? Well, you know, it's just like other sexually transmitted diseases, but magnified much greater and deadly disease. Like David was saying earlier, I think for those couples or people, I mean, whether male, female or otherwise, where there is a strong sense of bonding or a true concern for the partner, there's usually a willingness to want to share the information about a positive test result with the other person.

We're talking about a responsible individual. Yes. But it has been like experienced that most people are willing to tell the other person some need help from us as physicians, but generally, after a bit of counseling, they are willing to, may not be the first session, but usually we get to that point. There are some people, and this is true, I think, not necessarily among persons who are infected, but in a population in general, who are not responsible, and unfortunately, there are a few of them as well. All right. We're going to go to the people who are responsible for us being here on the air, isn't that a sick way? Don't you just love that network. There are individuals who have underwritten this program, we want to acknowledge them at this time. We'll be right back. I'd special program is presented in the public interest by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. As the age crisis deepens, there is still no vaccine or cure, and none is in sight. This is not only a threat to high-risk groups, such as the gay community and intravenous

drug users. It's a threat that could touch any of us and all of us, and until there is a medical breakthrough, our only defense is education. I'm John Creed and President of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Tonight's special program provides essential information about AIDS. It's the first in a series of five programs about AIDS, which will be presented this year. MetLife is underwriting these programs in the public interest. For over 100 years, we have been bringing information to Americans on important health issues, and we believe the AIDS epidemic may be the most serious health issue facing our nation and the world in this century. So whatever your current attitude or knowledge is about AIDS, we urge you to watch and listen. The more we know about AIDS, the better our chances do prevent it. All right, there's so much truth in that. The more we know about it, we have the opportunity to save a life, maybe even your own.

I gave you a number of 332 AIDS, which is for more information, but we have a phone number that we want to give you to call now so that you can participate in a program. That is 636 557 or 558, so that you can call now and join us in our discussion here. Let me go again to that point about who do you tell, and how should you do this? We talked about that in terms of people who are responsible, but we heard here these infamous examples, if you will, of individuals who are not responsible. Any comments about that, David? Well, I don't get anybody, all right. It's not the psychopath. It's not the prostitute. It's not, you know, some mad, crazy, typhoid-marry kind of person who was spreading AIDS. Honest to God, it's the girl next door. It's the person who looks like it doesn't have a care in the world, a health problem at all. But he's infected with AIDS virus, or she's infected with AIDS virus, and they're infectious to others. These are our friends who are infecting others. James.

And a lot of times they don't know. But to answer a bit of that question, as to who do you tell? When your doctor tells you, the first thing I would suggest is to go into therapy if you are antibody positive, or if you don't have a virus. No. When I was first told, I was just dumbfounded and had no idea what to do or what was available to me, because I was infected two years ago. And two years ago, we were with a lot of ignorance still. But that's changed now. But you have to be cautious, even today, as to who you say, what to, especially that I have AIDS, because you have people who will, I lost my job, my apartment, my insurance, a lot of my friends, some of my family members didn't want to associate with me anymore. But I did have a very wonderful response from my mother and my sister. Your mother is here in the audience this evening.

When you say you lost, some people are fighting back in the courts. Are you doing that? Or did you? No. I don't want to spend what time I have left fighting in court. I want to spend it enjoying my life. And for most, enjoying my life or helping to teach someone else how not to get into my situation. Okay, we're going to do that right now. We're going to go to a phone call. Go right ahead, please. You're on the air. Good evening. The doctor indicated that oral sex was a means of transmitting the AIDS virus. What scientific evidence can he offer to support that statement? All right. Doctor. This is a well-informed audience out here, yes. No. I think that it is theoretically possible and entirely possible since we know that, for example, semen is one of the most infectious body fluids in terms of contain the virus. I'm not aware specifically, though, of any published document in a medical literature that specifically shows that the virus has been transmitted from one individual to another

through oral intercourse. But it makes sense logically as a preventive measure to consider that it can occur. I can't offer you any hard data to support it, however. I've read in some of the material in preparation for this. They said, if you had cuts in your mouth, I don't know how people know when they had these abrasions and let them break out of your mouth. But any of us who brush our teeth, that means most of us, have little cuts in our mouth. And it's that break in the mucus membrane in the mouth that gives the opening for the virus to get in and therefore into the bloodstream, which is the way we would get it. I think there's also something who's going to take a chance of standing in front of somebody that has a 38 in their hand, you know, or in the same person, with a 38 in their hand and getting ready to shoot something, you're going to just walk in front of it. It's the same thing. Don't put yourself at risk. You know, we have some visual that we're going to show later on in the program, which speaks specifically to that about how do you determine what is safe sex in some of the examples

of how to go through this. So we shall have another phone call, go right ahead, please join the air. Yes. Hello? We don't have that person there. All right, let's go to a video because we're talking about this. This one is there are only a few ways in which you can get affected by the AIDS virus. And here are the ways in which this can be done. IV drug use. When addicts shoot up and share needles, they do something that allows the AIDS virus to spread. Usually, they will draw some of their blood into the syringe before they inject the drug. When the next addict does the same thing, it is like mixing the blood in the syringe. When one person is infected with the AIDS virus, anyone using that needle could pick up the virus. Another way the virus moves from one person to the next is through sex. And it doesn't matter if it is between two men, a man and a woman, or two women. When someone is infected with the virus, it can be found in their blood and the fluids they produce during sex.

Seaman and men, vaginal fluid and women. If these fluids get into a partner's blood through a break in their tissue, then that partner has been exposed and can be infected by the AIDS virus. And for heterosexuals, transmission can go in either direction, for man to woman or from woman to man. In short, unprotected sex is risky because there is an exchange of bodily fluids. Some people were infected by AIDS-tainted blood transfusions before safeguards were put on the blood supply, but now there is a test which can detect infected blood. The AIDS virus can spread one other way. When a woman with the virus is pregnant, she can pass the virus to her unborn child, possibly during the birth process itself. There is also speculation that mothers can transmit the virus through breastfeeding. In short, there are very few ways in which the AIDS virus can pass from one person to another. That's exactly what you were saying, David. It isn't necessarily the high risk group.

It is the activities that are involved and managed to get the virus transmitted from one to the other. Yes. Yes. Several panelists have suggested that we know now enough to protect ourselves. How exactly do we do that? How exactly do we do that? Well, we're talking about synthetic latex condoms, latex, that's what we call them on the street, rubbers. Okay. And there are a whole bunch of rubbers out now that are pre-lubricated with some neat stuff that kills the AIDS virus. Okay. Let me stop you right there. Latex, not animal. Yeah. This fancy schmancy animal membrane condoms for our big sensitive men. They don't protect you. Okay. They don't, because they've got pores in them, they're pores, they're just like the membranes in your body. You know, you're an animal. You know, when are you personally, darling? It's in a plant. So we don't want to take animal bit, okay. You've got pores in your membrane and those are little holes in the viruses that cause herpes, chlamydia, a whole bunch of other sexually transmitted diseases, and AIDS can get through those little holes.

You've got to use rubbers, synthetic latex condoms, and they're a whole bunch of them out that are now pre-lubricated with some stuff called non-oxinal nine. This stuff kills the AIDS virus. Plus the women have got to use a spermicide, that's like a vaginal foam or gel that also contains nonoxinal. They don't already on the market in the drugstore. And every drugstore is super market. Yeah. But for those people who may not yet be in tune with using condoms, whatever reason, are totally against it. There are other things you can do. If it's something that you can deal with, you can become celibate. I was going to say just say no. Well, I don't know. Just say no. It's not laugh about it. It does. I don't think just saying no works, quite honestly. And I think that's a gimmick that doesn't work in diseases, but it's popular. But you can choose to be monogamous and hope that your partner is also going to be monogamous. I mean, there are those alternatives. You can avoid putting your stuff in a position where you might end up having intercourse with a person whom you consider at risk or whom you don't know very well.

All those are things that you can do to protect yourself. And of course, using robbers are another way to add to all these preventive steps. All right. That's we're talking the sexual aspect of it. There are other things we're going to talk about. Let's try for a phone call right now. We're right ahead. Please you're on the air. Hello. You're on the air. We don't have anybody on the, yeah. Hello, it's a person there. No, David. Let's talk about safe sex though. The only 100% safe sex is a beautiful loving expression between two people who are not infected with the AIDS virus, right, who have made a lasting commitment to each other. In other words, we're talking about marriage or really wonderful relationship. Well, you know the sexual history. It seems to me that you almost have to know the sexual history or the person for the last, it was five years. This not sounds like 10 years. And you don't know the sexual resume of everybody. Do you? Like I like what James said, today when you're sleeping with somebody, you're sleeping with everybody, he has slept with and she has slept with and that is very crowded and

dangerous. We're talking about major group sex here. And so, you know, what we have to do today in the sage of AIDS, the loving thing to do is the protecting thing. And now, I personally hope that everybody, particularly young people, because you know in the teenage hotline, this is where our main emphasis is, I hope that young people will wait for sex until they know the kind of love that won't abandon them when times get rough. When you said the teenage hotline, I happen to be standing up here with some members who are volunteers in that particular area. Do you ever have teenagers calling you and if so, what do you say, you know, what kind of comments do you make? Some of the comments that they were talking about, they take condoms and most of all, they have relationships and not, they want us, okay, stand up, isn't that awful in this hot day, but that's what you want to see your face on television? Yes.

No, they heard it, it's just me to see you, that's all. Well, love, of course, and like I said, we should not have sex, you know, we were just kids and trying to make it by. But you just kind of, you're giving that on, in that information, over the phone, right? Yeah, what else do they want to know? Is it just basically self-safe sex or is it- That question about mosquitoes a lot of times? Okay. And let us not laugh at that because I've heard adults ask that, can it be transmitted by mosquitoes? Kilorade's mosquitoes, all right? It makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, you know, mosquito comes in bite you and extracts the blood, the over and bite somebody else, it makes sense, right? There are only two ways that an arthropod, check that term out, arthropods like a mosquito, a flea, tick, a bed bug, only two ways they can transmit a virus, mechanical, and biological. Biological means that there's some sort of viral activity inside the blood in the mosquito, and that means that it multiplies it, replicates inside.

Well, that happens with malaria, because what doesn't happen with the AIDS virus. It doesn't multiply, it doesn't replicate, although a mechanical, uh-uh. You see, it would take 2,600 bites from an infected person, let's say Wayne's infected, right? And he goes, get away from here, you know, and let's go to go, and go over here and bites her 2,600 plus, and even then it's a far off remote chance that she would get infected. Real life doesn't work this way. Which is the way I ask you to hold that a minute, we're going to go to a tape, David gives me these wonderful lines to lead into things we talk about how the body is attacked by all of this. But we do have a video that we want to show you right now that shows you exactly how the AIDS virus attacks the body. If a germ such as the common cold virus gets inside of you, your body sends for its soldiers called helper T-cells, which are in your blood. They identify the particular enemy from hundreds of millions of possible types of invaders.

These T-hopper cells then call in their B-cells, which manufacture antibodies. These antibodies then surround the enemy virus and kill it. This is how we stay healthy. With the AIDS virus also called HIV for human immunodeficiency virus, it is another story. HIV or the AIDS virus uses some special tricks to fool the immune system. First it enters the body already hidden in a T-cell, so it isn't recognized right away. This delay gives the AIDS virus a chance to get a head start and multiply. Eventually, the healthy T-cells recognize that there is something strange about these infected T-cells, and they call in the B-cells to start making antibodies. It usually takes about four to six weeks to produce antibodies to the AIDS virus. By then, the AIDS virus has already begun slipping into healthy T-cells where the antibodies can destroy them. They can hide there for months or even years.

In most cases, and for reasons we don't yet understand, the virus begins to multiply inside the infected T-cell. In fact, it becomes a factory for producing the virus, and eventually, the T-cell itself is destroyed. After a while, almost all the T-cells are destroyed, or left so weak they can't do their job. Now, your body can no longer defend itself from attacks of other diseases. And these diseases are the actual killers. All right, I haven't fascinated by this. I've seen it several times, but it's just that if you can say this about something as awful as this could disease, but it's a wonderful way to make people understand exactly what's happening. Pat, Trisha, you wanted to say something about mosquitoes. Well, we're going to say something about mosquitoes. I'm going to let him go about the one in this country that many people have talked about, but I want to give you an example from a study that was done in Africa. At the International Conference, the summer before last, that was here in Washington, D.C., one of the sessions was done by a physician from East Africa from Uganda, and he was saying that in Africa, particularly, it's very hard to dissuade people.

Getting people to believe that mosquitoes do not, in fact, carry this virus, because any of us, including myself, who've lived in Africa, know that you live with mosquito bites. And they did a study, a significant study of a number of families in a particular part of Uganda, and there was a fairly significant rate of HIV infection. But the interesting thing was that those mosquitoes only bit sexual partners. His point being that the mosquitoes were biting everybody, but the only people who were becoming HIV positive were not everybody. They were people who were sexually active with other people who had the virus. The kids, the older people, the people who were not sexually active, I don't mean to imply that older people are not sexually active. I'm an older person. But all those people in those other categories were not getting infected. The mosquito was not the variable that counted. It was the sexual activity. All right. Wait.

If you will, then we'll go to the phones. The same thing is true for the Balglade area in Florida. You know, there was quite a halibilou a few years ago now about the high concentration in cases in the area. I saw it on television. Yes. But when this outbreak, if you will, was investigated by people from the Centers for Disease Control, it was clear that those who were being affected were those who were IV drug users and sexually promiscuous people in their partners. It makes no sense that mosquitoes would know to buy only those who are using drugs or are being promiscuous in their partners. And discriminating mosquitoes. Exactly. I know. It makes no sense. And furthermore, if that were the case, I'd expect that the cases of AIDS would be highest in those areas where mosquitoes are most rampant. Right. And that doesn't work. Let's take a phone call. Turn on the air. Good evening. Hello. Yes. Go right ahead. Your question, please. I hear, could you tell me what the symptoms of AIDS are? The symptoms. Okay. This is interesting. Well, there are no symptoms to just being infected with the AIDS virus. Okay.

That's why the virus is spreading through our society so much because people who don't know they're infected because they're not sick are sexually active or sharing drugs or whatever. So once you're immune system and your central nervous system is being damaged by the AIDS virus, then you'll start having symptoms. And that is bad, bad fatigue. You're so tired. It's hard to get out of bed of fevers of 101 degrees or more that don't let up. Sometimes they get higher. They last diarrhea that doesn't let up. Sometimes you get to the bathroom. Sometimes you don't. It's really bad stuff. It would be swelling of the lymph glands under your neck, under your arms and your armpits and in the private area and your groin area. It could be bad, bad skin rashes. It could be a yeast infection in your mouth. That's like white cheesy stuff. It gets around your gums or it could be a yeast infection in the vagina for women. It could be bad weight loss of say 10 to 15 percent of your normal body weight. So if you weigh 120 pounds, you would probably lose 10 to 15 pounds, say within a month to two months.

And then there could be bad pain in the chest, constriction in the chest, a bad cough where none of that icky yellow stuff, you know, flam comes up. And where to walk up a flight of stairs would wind you. There are also signs of various cancers and central nervous system disorders such as blurred vision, absent mindedness, coordination problems. It's bad stuff. If you had any of these symptoms, when you want to at least be with the doctor. Yeah. That's Wayne. Did you want to make a point on that? To emphasize, though, just like David had said, you can't wait until you have symptoms to start to think about this disease. Right. It takes a long time from the point you're infected with this virus until you get symptoms. And for those people who are not paying any attention to the kinds of sexual behavior they engage in, they can affect several, several dozens or maybe even hundreds of people during those years before they develop symptoms. Well, let me ask you this. And then we'll go to the tape. I read something, and again, in preparation, that said that people who were like nurses, doctors, researchers who were working around bladder that's been contaminated with the

virus, if they prick themselves with the needle or whatever, that they're even recommending now that sometimes they use AZT, which is the only drug I believe that's been approved to be used before the symptoms come on as a possibility of preventing or at least they're doing something. Is that true? It's a very, very experimental data at the research level. And so the final results are in, but there are some who are in fact conducting trials to see whether or not taking AZT, if you've been exposed to the virus, before any symptoms, to see if it does any good. And the preliminary data looks very satisfying and positive. All right, Jay, I want to ask you some personal stories, let's go to the tape right now. Every time and time again, and we've said that about the blood being, the primary source, if you will, when the body flows of transmitting this virus. But let's talk about that, because a lot of people are concerned about the blood bank. We have some video here now to give us more information on that. Let's see it right now.

All right, it looks like that we're not going to see that at this moment. Jay is a me ask you specifically, after hearing David give all the symptoms that we're going on. It was at your case, was it, are you taking AZT at this time and just help us to understand what it's like living with this illness? Do you take AZT now? As far as symptoms, one thing I wanted to say, these symptoms are symptoms of other infections. A lot of them are opportunistic infections, which mean something that you ordinarily have in your body or your body is able to fight off. A cold, whatever, yeah. Yeah, a minor cold. I don't get minor coals. Most people with age don't get minor coals.

Make your own existence. When we get a cut on our leg, it's a major problem. It's all in adjusting to your situation now. Staying away a good distance from someone who has a bad cold or not doing a lot of things that you ordinarily would be doing and going up and down the flight of stairs. I'll go up one flight of stairs, I'll stay up there for a little while. I'm not going to hit that flight of stairs unless I know I can sit up there for a little while. Or if I have to come back there. Are you feeling, I mean, you look terrific. My eyes, even without my glasses, but you look like you feel good. Do you feel good at this point? Are you in remission? Is that appropriate term to use? Yes, it is. Well, I feel good. I feel great right now as a matter of fact. Two weeks ago you was ill, God, is you dying? But if you take care of yourself, listen to your doctor, and follow a certain just think about what you're doing as far as what are you eating, what are you taking, what you're

putting into your body, what are you taking out of your body? Because this has a lot to do with it. Because if you already have a weak and immune system, how much quicker is the virus going to attack your system? There are a lot of questions. We're going to try for this video tape once again because as we talk about, one of the other misconceptions that we have about the AIDS virus is that if you give blood, you're going to get AIDS. Let's clear this up. Anyone who received a blood transfusion between 1978 and early 1985 falls into a questionable period because the AIDS epidemic took hold during those seven years. And the first cases of AIDS tainted transfusions began to show up. Doctors estimate that during that period, four out of every 10,000 blood donations carried the AIDS virus. If you received a transfusion during that time, you should consult your doctor on whether or not you'll need to take the AIDS antibody test. Since the spring of 1985, there have been safeguards placed on America's blood supply.

First, all blood donations are now tested immediately for the AIDS antibody. Blood, which test positive, is discarded. The second safeguard is called donor self deferral. People who want to give blood are first asked to read material, which delineates all of the ways in which people can be exposed to AIDS. If potential donors feel they may be at risk, they're asked not to give blood. The Centers for Disease Control report that the blood supply is very safe. In fact, doctors now insist that your chances of encountering AIDS tainted blood are less than one in 50,000. And they offer advice on how to improve even those odds. If you're going into the hospital, ask your doctor whether a transfusion will really be necessary. If you'll be needing blood, donate it yourself. That way, you'll know the blood you're receiving is completely safe. Okay, doctor, any other comments about that? I mean, I know a lot of people who are really, they say yes, the blood bank is safe, but. Well, I think that part of this has been fueled by at least one report in the medical

literature where someone gave blood and tested negative, but later became positive. So that is a rare occurrence, which can happen like all biological tests. There are those kinds of problems that can occur, but for the most part, what was shown is absolutely true. I think that in the past, some individuals who were infected happened to have found out after going to donate blood because the blood was tested. They were contacted and they saw the two as going together, given blood and being told they were positive, but it was really more of the fact that the blood had to be tested and then they were notified. What about it laying dormant for a number of years, if you will, let's say that I was tested today and I tested negative and I gave blood and then six months from now, I tested positive. Is that a possibility? Most people, after being exposed to the virus, if we were to do a blood test looking for antibody to the virus by six to eight weeks, the test will be positive. Now there are exceptions and it can take longer in some individuals and there's more

report that goes over to 12 or 14 months, I believe, but we think that those exceptions and for the most part, six to eight months, six to eight weeks rather, usually your tests will become positive. So I wouldn't like people to become alarmed. All right. That's what we're trying to do today is to give people the facts and dispel misconceptions change you wanted to make a point to come. We have a very nice discussion and I appreciate it. However, there's a point that has been missed so far and it's missed in a lot of programs so that we're fighting a disease called AIDS. We're fighting a virus. We're not fighting people. The people aspect of AIDS is really missed in a lot of situations, especially in the government. But that, do you mean we discriminate against that? We don't see it as a health issue or we see, I'm confused because when you say that, we look at it as a health issue, a civil rights issue, a combination of both, what is all the above.

But the most important thing is, is that we're talking about people who are infected with the virus. It's important to get information out and to let people know, hey, this is here. This is how it can be stopped. We don't have it here, but we can stop it. That's very important for those people who don't have it, but what about the people who do? We have to struggle daily. The cost of AZT is over $8,000. Some people have to pay it out of their pockets. However, I'm fortunate. I don't have to pay it out of my pocket. Is this covered by insurance? Yeah, not insurance, but it's so security, like I said, when I was first diagnosed within the first 18 days of my diagnosis, I lost my insurance, my apartment, my job. I lost, you know, I became desolate in a matter of 18 days while I was in the hospital. And what about the long-term effects? I mean, have you thought about that? Where you're going to go?

I mean, it isn't, at this point, to be realistic. It doesn't look good. What have you done in terms of preparing yourself or do you talk about that, work that through? Well, you can talk about it, but you can't work it through with someone else, really. You have to do it in your own head to start off with. And then you make your plans, okay, well, I know I've got to live. I know I have to have a place to live. What are my options without a job? Some people go underground, hey, I'm not going to tell anybody I have AIDS. I'm not going to let it out. So then you have a lot of people who with AIDS are still working. A lot of employees don't know that they're working with AIDS. All right. You know, you have to plot your course, find out what you are to do. Individualistic, it sounds like what you're saying here. We've been saying about the antibodies and all the tests that doctors talked about, some can, some can't. Again, we have some video that we'd like to show right now. Hopefully, again, through animation and more information, we'll be able to give you dispel some of the myths around this.

The AIDS antibody test looks for signs of the HIV virus. A positive test result means it is probably there. A negative test result means it's probably not. Most scientists agree that the AIDS antibody test is accurate, but not perfect. It can be wrong. Here's how. We have already seen how the body produces antibodies, but when the AIDS virus gets into the blood, it creates a different reaction. Unlike other diseases, the antibodies do not kill the AIDS virus. They just act as markers to tell us the virus is there. The test looks for these antibodies, not the virus itself. Even though a person may be infected with the virus, it takes four to six weeks for the antibodies to show up. For some, it may take up to six months or longer. And that's the problem with the test. It is possible for people who have been infected with the virus to test negative because their bodies have not yet produced antibodies. If you do test positive, it is very important to understand that this does not necessarily mean you have AIDS.

There are some people who have been infected for up to nine years and are still healthy. But a high percentage of those who do test positive will go on to develop full-blown AIDS. Most experts believe at least 50% of those testing positive may get AIDS or serious symptoms of the disease within seven years. All right, we have a number of questions from the people in the studio audience. Go right ahead, please. Yeah. I would like to ask you to be alone. Do you care different from everybody? I have an AIDS. I mean, have you ever wished for a job interview and you tried to die because you were alone? Do you tell them if you try it ever? Right now. I don't feel any different. I never have felt differently. I never will feel differently. All I have is a disease. Just like someone with a cancer or someone with a cold, it has to affect me differently. Not you, not anyone in here. I'm the one who have to make changes, but it's just a matter of living and wanting to live.

I want to live. Yes. I have a question for the doctor. Has there ever been a time where someone that's terrified of death that they know they have AIDS coming to you and they say that they want to kill that stuff because they don't want to hurt everybody else or they don't feel like losing their friends or their family? Yeah. In fact, usually it's a situation where they are so overwhelmed knowing that they have developed AIDS or have been infected with the virus that they don't see any way out. It's not so much they want to kill themselves because they don't want to infect someone else, but they're so overwhelmed and the burden is so heavy that they would rather end there than to go through the suffering. Some people albeit a small minority feel that way. I'd like to comment on that also because I've gone through that. I have said, well, I just want to die. I've had to accept, well, I'm going to die. When I was first diagnosed, all I knew was I have something that's terminal. I didn't know if it was going to happen today or tomorrow when, but I have talked about

suicide and to be honest with you, it's still way back here somewhere because when a person gets AIDS, they lose a lot of control in their life and the only thing that you really have, the only control you really have is I can die today. I can make sure that I die today. That's the only real control you really still have and all the rest of it we're gripping at and trying to keep it. Yes. Don't you believe that there's still discrimination primarily in the health clinics and the hospitals? I mean, like just in this area, we're doing say mothers that are carrying children who have AIDS. I mean, do they have anywhere to go? It's a great point. Yeah. On the teenage hotline, we just completed a research project where do women who are infected with the AIDS virus were also pregnant, go for help. Whether that help is an abortion or whether that help is to have an offer baby where she'll receive financial assistance, housing, it is a real problem.

You're absolutely right, miss. Women with AIDS are very much discriminated against. One thing along this line on all of our hearts being very moved by your talk, James. Honest to God, anybody who's infected with the AIDS virus, no matter what the stage of infection, you young man, young woman, older person, you have more friends than you know. There are wonderful men and women of love and faith throughout the greater DC area who are right here for you. All you have to do is call up and say, I'm infected with the AIDS virus or I'm scared that I am. I need to talk with someone. They're discussion and support groups, they're counselors, they're a clergy, they're just good old John Q. Citizen, Jane Q. Citizen, there to help you in your need. While you're saying that, David, let me again remind you that the number for information that's going to be ongoing is 3, 3, 2, age. You can call that at any point in time and there are people there who could man the phones, give me your information. Again, here in our studio, our phone number is 6, 3, 6,

5, 5, 5, 7 or 8, if you want to join in the conversation right here in studio. Let me go to this young lady, yes. I work at the A-Tot line and we get a lot of people calling in or worried about what they did last night or last month or whatever and they're scared about getting tested. They don't want to find out the results yet. I just want to say, you can go down, you can go to a clinic, it's anonymous, it's usually free, there's places all over DC and Maryland and you can go down and get tested and even if you do test positive, there's counseling available, there's A-Z-T-Out, I mean you can do it and you should just find out right now so you're not going to be spreading this disease. But it's got to be a lot of the same line, it's like women tested themselves for breast cancer. It's so simple to do a monthly kind of check to see whether or not there's a lump there. But the reality is, oh my God, suppose there is, there is that fear. If I do have the lump there, then what? If I do go and get tested and it's positive, then what?

Stand up, yes. I'm a psychologist and I work with people who have AIDS and people being tested. It's really important that people get counseling around the testing. In Florida hotline out in Florida last year had four suicides from the blood bank results coming back because it wasn't no counseling going on with the testing. It's really important that people get counseling around this issue and don't test themselves at home or drive through it up by themselves. There are companies not going to sell that commercially, don't people do that. Okay, yes, stand up, please. I think one of the problems I see is that if say you do go and get tested for AIDS and it is negative, like you were saying, but because you don't know at what stage and even when you're donating blood, you don't know at what stage you have it. So what if some of these young people that go and they say, okay, I'm strong enough and I'm going to be tested and they come back with a negative test, but they are indeed positive and that probably wouldn't show up for six months so they think, well, I'm not going to do that. Okay, now this is sacred. I don't have any problems and I can go back to whatever. So what do you do? How do you deal with that? Yes, David.

Every Monday morning on the teenage hotline, we get phone calls like this from guys, oh my God, you wouldn't believe what I did Friday night and said, yeah, I would believe it. Yeah. And it was a sexual adventure or I wish you know something, you know, that was drug related and the guys are freaking out, where can I go get tested as a question? We say, whoa, hold on. We say to be very conservative and we are conservative health organization, you've got to wait at least four months because it might take that long for your blood system to develop antibodies to the AIDS virus to register on this AIDS test. It's called the HIV, the name of the AIDS virus, the HIV antibody test. So wait four months, get tested, get your results and even if it comes up negative, meaning that there are no signs of you being infected, we suggest that you go back four months later to be retested just to be double sure, isn't peace of mind worth everything. All right. Hold on. You don't have a mic. I know you got excited on.

And why aren't you doing that, period? David, can you hold your palm? Yes. We're going to go to a break here. Okay. Okay. A Washington organization that offers counseling for individuals with AIDS is life link. Purpose of life link is the self empowerment, the cost of the self empowerment of people with AIDS to be proactive on the issues surrounding AIDS, services, AIDS education, advocacy for people with AIDS. We want to be everywhere AIDS policy is discussed in May. We don't believe that those kinds of decisions can be made without the direct input of people living in the range of HIV, or for blown AIDS or HIV infection. The second component is comprehensive AIDS education. We can speak from a personal perspective of what it's like to live with AIDS, to live with HIV infection, or get as complete as condom distribution, the appropriate video depending

on the audience, thorough, comprehensive AIDS education, the medical model, what the virus is, how it acts on the body. Third and finally, but not least important, is social service entitlement. When people get sick, if they lose their work or they need housing or whatever happens and it's a long list and a complicated scenario of just things that can happen to you when you fully diagnose, you will need help. So we are a point of intake for social security, Medicaid, food stamps, a number of assistance programs for persons who have AIDS and qualified for those programs to their diagnosis. We don't refer to antibody test sites which are not anonymous. We have a strong feeling about confidentiality and that there ought to be counseling or some discussion with the individual before and after the test.

Anyone interested in taking the AIDS antibody test, we like a life link refers to the clinic called the public hall, the Southwest Health Center and the Women's World of Clinic in Washington. All right, we are giving you a lot of information this evening but it's important information and again, the number that we want you to remember is 3-3-2-8 that if there are any questions or comments or you just need some clarification, just call that number, some questions over here. Yes. If you are exposed to the virus, the virus can infect you or anyone else and like we said earlier, you may have no symptoms at all and we need to get rid of the idea that the virus

only infects gay white men or IV drug users, it will infect any of us if we expose ourselves to the virus, is that what you are, what is it that you are trying to find out, can you carry the virus, active or not active, can I look at her and say she has the virus? You don't know by looking though, like a tired, tired marriage, yes, let me just tell you quickly. We had a case of a gentleman who visited Washington from another city a few years ago came into the city and had affairs with a prostitute, became infected, went back to his hometown and affected his wife. His wife eventually died of AIDS when he was still alive and feeling fine, but he was obviously a carrier, so yes, you can carry the virus and not have the symptoms and not have any symptoms at all. Okay, let me ask you, we've talked about AIDS and sex and safe sex and condoms and all. We haven't talked about AIDS specifically in the IV drug user and the concept of giving

a person needles or needles in bleach, now there are some people who say if you give an IV user a clean needle, aren't you promoting his bad, this habit of being a drug addict? Comments about that? That's promoting life because you don't know who that IV drug abuser sexual partner is and who that person's sexual partner is and what you're going to have is you're going to have this unclean needle going and somebody's arm and this somebody is going to go and have sex with your next door neighbor and your next door neighbor and your child's going to get real chummy and next thing you know is going to be in your family. I'm standing next to George Michael here, you're not going to help, yes, come right ahead, please. Yeah, I was wondering if there were any sort of laws protecting, let's say employees who have AIDS from like, there are any laws protecting the employees. If you've been discriminated against, if an employer could fire someone just because they

have AIDS. Here in the district of Columbia and in the state of Maryland, all of those who were infected with the AIDS virus and a whole bunch of other diseases, other infections are covered under the anti-discrimination law concerning the handicap, okay. So there is specific anti-discrimination laws concerning HIV infection that are being introduced all around the DC for General Maryland. But I think DC has the most, what is considered the most liberal law regarding that and the AIDS panel, you should know the national panel. I think the gentleman who had an animal walking said said that's one area that needs to be really looked at. I'll come back to you a minute. Let me try for a phone call real quick to see about, we've got the viewer out there. On the right hand, please, good evening, you're on the air. Yes. Okay. I got four questions. My first question is, is it through AIDS originated from Africa? Okay. Give all your questions and let's try to answer them.

AIDS coming from Africa, okay. Is it through AIDS originated from Africa? And the next question is about the lady who talked about America. That if you can't get AIDS through mosquito bites. Okay. This is a difference from whether this is such as malaria. Okay. Okay. That's the question. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Then my next question is like, anxiety is like, like researchers, disease, um, um, proposed drugs on humans, you know, on human beings, why can't they do that in America where it's more advanced? Okay. My final and last question is, I read the paper. This is not a tabloid about getting a drug that could cure AIDS in the age. You know, the researchers have gotten a drug that has done very well on people. Why don't I say that on American TV? Oh, okay. Let's go with your first question. AIDS in Africa? Okay. Um, where did it start? More important than where it started is, where is it going to stop? We can do something about that.

But, yeah. The theory is that it may have started in Africa. But that theory is now being discounted. And I think that the last thing we need to do with a problem that is attacking the world is to start getting countries divided. Africans blaming us and us blaming Africans. Okay. So go global issue. Okay. The question about it being similar to malaria. That's a good question. Malaria yellow fever. A lot of fevers are a lot of diseases rather. Infectious diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes and other organisms. It relates to what David said. The malaria parasite, for instance, has half of its life cycle. It has to live in the mosquito. It can only live half of it in me and the other half in the mosquito. Otherwise it doesn't continue to. Which is not the case with the virus. Which is not the case with AIDS. Okay. He said I'm also about a new drug that he'd heard about. And I don't know. Dr. E. Well, the thing is this. You know, every few days or weeks we hear of a new drug or cure for AIDS. I would caution you to be very skeptical of those reports. Any group or company that has produced a drug that will work. It's going to become so wealthy, so quickly that the whole world will know.

And we have the example of things that HPA 23 that was using France. I'm promoted in the era of rock hassons being a cure. Which is just falling apart. So I think it is safe to say that the present time the laws in the United States and FDA regulations are such. As to ensure that we won't have a drug that comes in a fly-by-night kind of course. That turns out to be more toxic than is helpful. All right, let's try this gentleman here. You as a doctor, I want to know how would you feel if this is quite on television. You may say that you feel that AIDS is very dangerous. But how would you feel if a patient came to you with the AIDS virus? You know, it was bleeding all over us. Okay. Okay. Let me just say, we're going to let his question, take us on out here, if you will. Because I think it's so very important, I want to thank everybody for participating on our show today. And the audience, you're just terrific. But doctor, if you will, just take us out on that point. We follow certain precautions in working with patients who are infected in the hospital. I see several patients with AIDS almost every day.

And in the days before we knew what precautions we should take, we were seeing them. I think people have overreacted as to how infectious this problem is. And I'm sad to say that they're not more black physicians and Hispanic physicians who are involved in this whole issue. And indeed, we need more people in the minority community to become involved. That has to be the last word. Thank you very much. APPLAUSE This special program was presented in the public interest by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Patient, we learned many important facts about AIDS. And that it is a disease, if left unchecked, could threaten the well-being of our entire society. There is no cure or a vaccine for AIDS yet. But we do know how it is transmitted and how the virus attacks the body. With this knowledge, we can take the proper steps to protect ourselves and those we love. And with knowledge, we can better understand the tensions and tragedies the AIDS virus generates for people in different walks of life.

All of us at MetLife hope that this series of AIDS problems will help bring the day closer when this disease no longer threatens the lives of people anywhere. But no single effort can do the whole job. All of us need to commit our energies to defeating AIDS. If we can put aside our philosophical differences and accept the challenge to defeat AIDS, it could be one of our finest hours as a caring people. Thank you, and good night.