Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, September 14, 2000
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
The 30-second paid TV spots, accompanied by a Web site, newspaper ads and handbills, feature a diverse range of HIV-positive men and women from around the Bay Area and will be run during prime time starting next week on UPN, ABC and cable channels. The ads are the first ever to emphasize prevention for people who are HIV-positive.
"The message is that infected people need to be taking on leadership roles in the community and responsibility for stopping the spread of HIV," said Tom Coates, an HIV-positive man who is director of the University of California at San Francisco AIDS Research Institute, a participant in the $345,000 campaign, financed by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
The ads come on the heels of a new Health Department study, released in August, which found that HIV infections among gay men in San Francisco are climbing at alarming rates.
New HIV infections have increased from 498 in 1997 to 790 last year, according to the study. The 573 new infections last year among gay men more than doubled the 283 infections in 1997 in that group.
Some AIDS experts have characterized the rates of infection among gay men in San Francisco as "sub- Saharan," referring to the AIDS epidemic sweeping Africa.
The study also found that consistent condom use is down among gay men. Part of the campaign's message is to persuade gay men not to make assumptions about a sex partner's HIV status, and for HIV-positive men to disclose their status to all partners.
"I believe in sex," one of the models says in the ad as multiethnic faces flash across the screen. "I believe in taking responsibility. I believe in using a condom. I believe in being open and honest. I believe in keeping my partner safe. . . . HIV stops with me."
"The message is: 'Let's all take a step back and look at what's going on . . . to curb the rate of infection," said Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Bay Positives, an AIDS resource group. "In my own life, my main priority is that I don't infect my negative partner. What happens all too often is there isn't a lot of negotiation during sex. People make a lot of assumptions, which is bad."
Felicia Elizondo, a 53-year-old male-to-female transsexual who learned she was HIV-positive in 1987, said in an interview that she hopes that by participating in the campaign, she can convince people of the negative consequences of risky sex.
"I don't want it to be transmitted," she said. "I don't want anyone to go through the hell that I've been through in the last 12 to 13 years. It's not a happy life taking medications twice a day."
Scot, another spokesman, who did not want his last name used, hopes to get the message across to HIV-positive couples that unprotected sex can lead to drug-resistant strains of the virus.
"I've seen a flurry of risky behavior in the last two years," he said in an interview. "The advent of protease inhibitors and the fact that there are fewer deaths make a lot of people assume the epidemic has come to a standstill. That's a myth."
San Francisco health officials and representatives from the Stop AIDS Project will introduce the campaign at 7 p.m. today at a public reception at the Women's Building, 3542 18th St.
More information is available at the campaign Web site, http://www.hivstopswithme.org.
E-mail Christopher Heredia at cheredia@sfchronicle.com.
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