Being Alive; July 1997
Fran McDonald

On June 19 the federal government released its guide to the treatment of hiv/aids, a technical work intended to help doctors to fully understand the variety of medications and their efficacy in combinations. Also, and perhaps most important, they endorsed the three-part "cocktail" of drugs. This is where you come in.

I am asking you to write to your two senators, Boxer and Feinstein, as well as to your representative in the House (if you don't know who that is, call the League of Women Voters, give them your zip code, and they can tell you your representative's name). Ask them to support legislation to provide the money that will make access to the new drugs possible for all Americans. No matter how wondrous the new drugs are that have just received the government's endorsement, they can't do any good if a person can't afford them.

The sad truth is that more than half of hiv+ Americans can't afford these drugson average, treatment with the drugs runs around $12,000 per year. Everyone will be able to benefit from the new drugs only if the government will put its money where its mouth is. So, pleasefetch paper and pen and get busy.

Prayer and a Cure

The spring issue of the UCLA alumni magazine has a short article, "Keep the Faithand Swallow Your Medicine," by Irvin Chen and Gail Wyatt, director and associate director, respectively, of the UCLA AIDS Institute. They write in response to the article by Cookie Johnson in the April issue of Ebony which stated that through prayer Magic Johnson was "cured" of hiv infection. The effect of such a reckless statement was astonishing. Nationwide, doctors and clinics saw large numbers of hiv+ people who said they no longer were taking their medications because, like Magic, prayer was all they needed.

Some even claimed that now they could engage in unprotected sex or use unclean needles because God would protect them from becoming infected. Prayer does wonderful things, but unfortunately curing aids is not one of them.

As a result of Cookie Johnson's article, a number of UCLA hiv researchers wrote a joint letter to the editor of Ebony to clarify the confusion, and, they hoped, stem the damage caused by the article. Chen and Wyatt's article in the UCLA magazine goes on to succinctly explain things like nucleoside analogs and protease inhibitors and terms like "cocktail" and "undetectable"and does it in a way that anyone can understand. (It astounds me that a major magazine like Ebony would print an article like Cookie Johnson's, reeking of ignorance as it does. When they talk about irresponsible journalism, this is a good example of it.)

If you'd like a copy of the Chen and Wyatt article, please call me. Seniors with HIV

Did you know that 59,000 Americans over 65 are hiv+? Present here seems to be the opposite of what is frequently cited as one reason so many young people become hiv+, namely feeling they are essentially invincible; an older person makes a terrible mistake if he thinks aids is only a young person's disease. Noteworthy is the fact that studies show that among older people it is neither drugs nor tainted blood transfusions that are the main causes, but rather sex. Older people are 5 times less likely to use a condom and 6 times more likely to have unsafe sex. So great is this problem that American Association of Retired People has even produced a video on the subject.

Jeff Davis Day

As many of you know, Jeff Davis, who was a pillar of this Newsletter, passed away some time ago. Wonderful people like Jeff, who leave their mark, truly do live on in other ways and Mayor Wellington Webb of Denver apparently agrees because he declared May 7 to be "Jeff Davis Day" in the Mile High City. After he left Los Angeles and moved to Denver, Jeff wasted no time turning the town on its ear. He went to the People with AIDS Coalition Colorado and became a pillar of their newsletter, renaming it Resolute!, a reflection of Jeff's own character. He also served on the Denver HIV Resources Planning Council, was a spokesperson for the hiv community on many occasions, and represented Denver at the White House Summit on hiv/aids last year.

In his proclamation, Mayor Webb also remarked upon Jeff's energy, search for truth and fairness, and the standard Jeff set for all to emulate. Jeff's family had a lot to be proud of before; now they have even more. If you'd like a copy of Mayor Webb's proclamation, just call me.

Fran McDonald has been in Social Services for 26 years and welcomes your calls at 213.664.4772.

970701
BA970707

Copyright © 1997 - Beings Alive. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used. Subscription lists are kept confidential. Being Alive, 621 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069, Tel - 310.289.2551; FAX - 310.289.9866; Email: BeiAlive@aol.com  http://www.beingalivela.org/