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HIV/AIDS doesn’t make headlines like it used to, but statistics show there are more patients suffering from the disease in Siskiyou County now than ever before.
Dr. Jim Parker, the first Siskiyou County doctor to treat HIV/AIDS patients in the 1980s, said he is currently treating about two dozen of the 47 cases in the area.
Parker said HIV/AIDS has long passed from the gay community to heterosexual people.
“I had a young man come in for a routine physical where we discovered he had acquired HIV,” Parker said during a recent interview. “He was heterosexual and had never used needles. Magic Johnson is one of the famous people who was heterosexual who got the virus. It’s become standard to test for HIV in routine checkups.”
The number of cases locally is much higher than other north state counties, according to Stan Drucker, the case manager in Siskiyou County for the five-county Mountain Counties HIV/AIDs Care and Treatment Program.
Drucker, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, says the 47 cases in Siskiyou County is up from 13 in 1997.
“People believe the disease is manageable so condom use has gone way down,” said Drucker.
He said the disease is continuing to grow not only in Siskiyou County but throughout the United States.
“In 1997 there was an average of 44,000 new cases a year. This year we are averaging 54,000 new cases a year,” Drucker said of national statistics.
He said his caseload consists of approximately one third gays, one third former needle drug users and one third heterosexuals.
“A good portion of my clients are heterosexual,” Drucker said. “A heterosexual needle drug user will get HIV and pass it to a heterosexual partner.”
Drucker says transients travelling the I-5 corridor are one of the reasons for the high number of patients in Siskiyou County, as well as people with the disease who move here for support from friends and family and the area’s beauty.
Dr. Parker said initially, in 1980s, “there were no medicines and there was a 100 percent mortality rate. Now, we have medical cocktails that are a mix of medicines that offer a reasonable life span. We can match the anti-viral with the virus as it mutates.”
The Disease
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a frequently mutating virus known to cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS devastates the immune system, leaving those infected to become ill and die from a variety of common ailments, such as pneumonia, in addition to exotic illnesses such as unusual cancers.
HIV/AIDS doesn’t make headlines like it used to, but statistics show there are more patients suffering from the disease in Siskiyou County now than ever before.
Dr. Jim Parker, the first Siskiyou County doctor to treat HIV/AIDS patients in the 1980s, said he is currently treating about two dozen of the 47 cases in the area.
Parker said HIV/AIDS has long passed from the gay community to heterosexual people.
“I had a young man come in for a routine physical where we discovered he had acquired HIV,” Parker said during a recent interview. “He was heterosexual and had never used needles. Magic Johnson is one of the famous people who was heterosexual who got the virus. It’s become standard to test for HIV in routine checkups.”
The number of cases locally is much higher than other north state counties, according to Stan Drucker, the case manager in Siskiyou County for the five-county Mountain Counties HIV/AIDs Care and Treatment Program.
Drucker, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, says the 47 cases in Siskiyou County is up from 13 in 1997.
“People believe the disease is manageable so condom use has gone way down,” said Drucker.
He said the disease is continuing to grow not only in Siskiyou County but throughout the United States.
“In 1997 there was an average of 44,000 new cases a year. This year we are averaging 54,000 new cases a year,” Drucker said of national statistics.
He said his caseload consists of approximately one third gays, one third former needle drug users and one third heterosexuals.
“A good portion of my clients are heterosexual,” Drucker said. “A heterosexual needle drug user will get HIV and pass it to a heterosexual partner.”
Drucker says transients travelling the I-5 corridor are one of the reasons for the high number of patients in Siskiyou County, as well as people with the disease who move here for support from friends and family and the area’s beauty.
Dr. Parker said initially, in 1980s, “there were no medicines and there was a 100 percent mortality rate. Now, we have medical cocktails that are a mix of medicines that offer a reasonable life span. We can match the anti-viral with the virus as it mutates.”
The Disease
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a frequently mutating virus known to cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS devastates the immune system, leaving those infected to become ill and die from a variety of common ailments, such as pneumonia, in addition to exotic illnesses such as unusual cancers.
HIV is generally believed, but not proven, to have come from an animal bite in Africa and is transmitted by bodily fluids, almost universally through sexual contact or infected needles from illegal drug users. The Centers for Disease Control says that transmission is limited to very narrow range.
“Only specific fluids, blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk from an HIV-infected person can transmit HIV,” the CDC says.
The first HIV/AIDS cases appeared in the United States in the early 1980s. According to the United Nations, AIDS is the fourth-leading cause of death in the world with nearly 40 million people infected with HIV. Over 30 million people have died from AIDS since the virus was identified. Nearly three quarters of the HIV infections are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Parker Steps In
“We had our first patient in the county and other doctors turned him down,” Dr. Parker said during a recent interview. “They didn’t want to treat a disease they knew so little about and there was fear in how it was transmitted.”
Parker said when he started treating HIV/AIDS patients he was on unknown ground.
“I had to self-educate myself,” Parker said. “The HIV hotline at San Francisco General Hospital was and still is a great resource. I spent hours on the phone with them.”
Parker’s advice on avoiding HIV is simple.
“Don’t have unprotected sex and don’t inject with dirty needles,” Parker said.
A mother loses her son
Dr. Parker’s first AIDS patient in the 1980s was a gay man whose now 82 year old mother, Mary Glenn, recently recalled his return home to Siskiyou County and his death.
“He was in the hospital in San Francisco and I went and got him and brought him home,” Glenn said. “None of the doctors here would treat him. Nobody knew anything about it. Dr. Parker said he didn’t either, but he said he would take it on.”
Glenn said the lack of knowledge about AIDS was difficult in many ways.
“Some of the nurses at the hospital wouldn’t touch him. They were scared to death. They didn’t know how it was transmitted. It hurts when you’re the mother of the child. I was scared too, but he was my son and I had to do all I could for him,” Glenn said. “Other nurses were compassionate. They held his hand and talked to him. Even though he was gay, they treated him well.”
Glenn said the fear and lack of knowledge extended into her workplace.
“People I worked with didn’t want to touch me,” she said.
Glenn’s advice on HIV/AIDS is to see a doctor and find out if you’re infected.
“Even if you know your partner, you never know,” Glenn said. “It’s not just gays that get the disease.”
Most of all, Glenn said that when it comes to those infected with HIV or AIDS, “People need to have compassion.”
Help for HIV/AIDS
Plumas County Health Education Coordinator Karla Burnworth is the five-county area supervisor for HIV/AIDS federal funding. The area includes Plumas, Modoc, Lassen, Sierra and Siskiyou counties. Among the programs the federal grant provides are free primary care physicians, HIV specialists, HIV dietitian, mental health provider and nurse case manager.
“It’s a one-stop shop,” Burnworth said. “The federal funding has made a huge difference in the care of patients in rural areas.”
Burnworth said that the State of California has cut HIV/AIDS funding.
“It has been cut significantly. Since 2008, we have lost $500,000 in funding,” Burnworth said. “We used to have a really big education program. Now, there is no HIV/AIDS education money and no funds for HIV testing or counseling.”
Of the five counties she oversees, Burnworth said Siskiyou County has the most HIV/AIDS patients “by far. Out of approximately 70 patients in the five counties, Siskiyou has about two thirds.”
She echoes Parker’s advice on avoiding HIV.
“Don’t have unprotected sex and don’t use needles,” Burnworth said.
Local Services and Issues
Unlike the 1980s when Dr. Parker had to educate himself and there were no services available for infected people, the Mountain Counties HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Program has an extensive list of free services for those suffering with the disease.
Although the drugs available for treating HIV/AIDS are effective in extending life span, they are not without side effects.
“People on the medications have problems with fatigue, diarrhea and dental problems,” Stan Drucker said. “I have been approving more and more dentures.”
Drucker said in counseling his clients, one of the issues is the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and being gay.
“Education has made a difference. In the 1990s I had people who would not shake hands with me because I worked with them,” Drucker said. “It’s still embarrassing for the clients. There is prejudice against HIV positive people. There is a big issue with confidentiality. I have a half dozen clients who chose to be treated outside the county because they don’t want it known they have HIV. I have had gay clients harassed in this county.”
Though many free services are available, Drucker said funding for some services, such as living expenses, is limited.
“We are the payer of last resort for some services and only have so much money,” Drucker said. “We could double our grants. I have to say no a lot.”
In addition to the services provided by the federal grant, patients may be eligible for Supplemental Security Income and disability funding. Drucker said those funds too are limited.
“SSI is not a living wage,” Drucker said. “There has been no SSI cost of living in three years. Monthly payments for food and rent and living expenses is about $800.”
Beyond using condoms and avoiding needle drug use, Drucker would like California to institute a needle exchange program. “It would really slow down HIV infections,” he said.
Numerous studies, including those from the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Institute of Medicine, and the World Health Organization, have concluded that needle exchange programs substantially reduce HIV infection rates and do not lead to increased drug abuse. Needle exchange programs also often offer introductions to drug treatment and medical services. See www.cdc.gov/IDU/facts/AED_IDU_SYR.pdf on the web for more information.
A Man Lives with HIV
Marcus is 51 years old and contracted HIV when he was 27.
“I have no idea how I got HIV,” Marcus says, but he does not mean it like it sounds.
“I was a partier. I had unprotected sex, used drugs and alcohol, and needles,” he said.
Marcus has turned his life around in more ways than one and takes full responsibility for contracting HIV.
“I could say we didn’t know about HIV or AIDS,” Marcus said. “But ignorance is no excuse.”
That message is one of the points Marcus makes in his lectures in Siskiyou County schools as part of his duties with the Siskiyou County STD/HIV Prevention Education Program.
“I don’t sugar coat what it is to live with HIV,” he said. “I talk about my choices around alcohol, drugs and sex. I am clear that the only person I have to blame is myself. I tell them that this does not have to happen to you. It’s your body. Don’t let other people make choices for you.”
Marcus said the students “appreciate my honesty. I’ve received a stack of letters from kids over the years. It would probably be three or four feet high.”
When he discovered he had HIV in 1986, Marcus said there were no drugs like there are now.
“AZT had come out, but I felt it was killing more people than it was helping. They were giving huge doses,” he said.
Refusing medications, Marcus saw his T-cell levels, which indicate the state of the immune system, drop to 38. The cut-off for an AIDS diagnosis is 200 and normal is between 800 to 1500.
“I finally started seeing a doctor,” Marcus said. “I was taking 10 to 12 pills a day. I knew people who were taking 20 to 25 pills a day. Now, I take one a day.”
In addition to medications, Marcus also focuses on the spiritual aspects of healing.
“The mind, body connection is key,” he said.
Marcus was one of the founders of the Siskiyou AIDS Foundation that now operates in conjunction with the Mountain Counties program. He notes that World AIDS Day is coming up on December 1.
“It’s an opportunity to commemorate, remember and honor those who have died and are still living,” Marcus said.
For more information on World AIDS Day events in Siskiyou County, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Siskiyou-County-HIVAIDS-Foundation/214363078791?sk=wall.
Unlike some of Stan Drucker’s clients who have experienced problems, Marcus has praise for how Siskiyou County has reacted to HIV/AIDS.
“Siskiyou County is special. Even better than some urban areas,” Marcus said. “There is a realistic, common sense approach to prevention.”
