Miami Herald - October 13, 2002
Ana Rhodes, arhodes@herald.com

She started a clearinghouse to help AIDS patients get medication.

The organization evolved into the Fort Lauderdale clinic, which now serves 1,000 AIDS patients, many of whom have no insurance or can barely afford their medicine.

In 1998, Wansiki contracted HIV while drawing blood from a patient.

In a recent interview, she discussed her new perspective, the status of the fight against AIDS and why it's too early to be complacent about arresting it.

Q. How did you get started in your work with AIDS patients?

A. It was 1980, and I lived in New York and was visiting two of my best friends, a gay couple. They put on the tape from a Halloween party from years ago. There must have been 150 people there, and we kept asking, 'Whatever happened to Joey? And Joey was gone.' After all those 'Whatever happened to's,' the only people that were left were Tony, Richard, myself, ex-husband, and a friend, Louis. Everybody else was gone. It was right there that my life changed.

Q. People with AIDS seem to be living longer. So what are the main issues now?

A. The problem is that with the new medications ... people are thinking that AIDS is gone.

Young kids think if you get AIDS it's no big deal because you're not going to die and you have the access to steroids to pump yourself up.

You also see that people don't think that HIV is around, and they're having unsafe sex constantly. It's still fatal.

Q. How have people's perceptions about AIDS changed?

A. People in the straight community ... try to think that they're protected because it's only a gay disease, and it's not. It's a disease that hits everybody.

It's predominantly gay, but you're seeing a change. Before, 95 percent of our clients were gay, and now 70 percent are gay. That's why it's so important for us to get into the schools and talk to kids. We're not trying to promote them having sex. We're trying to promote them understanding how to protect themselves.

Q. How has the outlook changed for someone with AIDS?

A. Before the drug cocktails came along in the mid-1990s, every day one or two people at the clinic died. It ripped you apart.

Now it's about 25 or 30 years or more that a person can live after being diagnosed with AIDS.

Q. How did you get AIDS?

A. It was 1998 ... I had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996 and was undergoing chemotherapy.

I had a patient who was bedridden, nurse was sick. I had stopped drawing blood ... in 1996 because of the risk. I said, 'No big deal, I'll grab these tubes.' So I went over to the house and grabbed these tubes, and I'm drawing the blood, and the patient jumped, and when they jumped the needle had gone right through my thumb.

I thought, 'Now I have to go home to the man I love, who just moved in with me, and tell him I got stuck with a needle.' But he was like, 'OK, honey, we'll do we have to do.'

I found out right before Christmas that I was HIV-positive. I told him, and he said, 'What do I have to do to keep you healthy? What do I have to do to make you OK?' We're still together.

But I felt as though my womanhood was taken away. ... I was dealing with shame. It changed my perspective, and I think of it now as a gift.

I give all positive results to patients. ... I can help them through initial testing and learning they are HIV-positive. ... I can sit there and know what they're feeling. I know how you want to run away and hide, how you want to die.

Q. How hopeful are you about the future?

A. The future looks good. They are finding new ways to attack this virus. But we have to be realistic about what's going on today. The virus is here. It's not going away right away.

I'm very concerned about the area of care for people who are HIV-positive, in terms of funding.

I have no health insurance. I get what treatment I can get through here. But I'm very positive that I'll be here as long as God wants me to be here, and I live one day at a time.

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