The Miami Herald, Inc.; Sunday, February 9, 1997
Miriam Stawowy; Herald Writer
These are some of the issues that the "Positive Women Support" group at the Stanley C. Myers Community Health Center in Miami Beach wants to address.
Beginning at 2 p.m. Thursday and continuing every second and fourth Thursday of each month, the center will host speakers to address issues such as health, nutrition, exercise, job training, study and work opportunities, drug and alcohol abuse, legal and immigration issues, treatment and care.
"There's a lot of programs for men, but there's a real need among women," said Carmen Santiago, who has been HIV positive for the last four years. Santiago, a counselor at the center, will lead the support group. She is the founder of the Positive Women International Network, an HIV awareness group.
"Women with HIV are still invisible in the community," she said.
HIV is touching more and more homes because partners and husbands are being infected by lovers or bisexual relationships, then they transmit the disease to their wives, Santiago said.
After San Francisco and New York City, Miami ranks third with the highest number of reported HIV cases in the country, Santiago said. Every 12 minutes, one person in Dade is infected with HIV, she said.
The Stanley C. Myers Community Health Center is located at 710 Alton Rd. Free HIV testing is available. Those who test positive will be given free medicine and services, regardless of their immigration status, Santiago said.
"It's important to give people information," she said. "I don't want a brother or sister dying out there alone."
Santiago can be reached by calling the center at 538-7548. All information is private and confidential.
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