AIDS: The Crisis Continues
Health workers are optimistic — but careful.
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS
Nursing Assistant Rosalind Barrows and LPN Rosemary Fortier have something to smile about — at last.
These employees at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital — AFSCME Local 1114 (Council 93) members — here have been caring for AIDS patients since the beginning of the outbreak in the mid-1980s. It has been a long and painful ordeal. But now, for the first time in their careers, up to 65 percent of their patients are im-proving and going home.
“Our unit takes care of patients primarily diagnosed with the acute stages of the disease,” says Fortier. “We’re seeing many more of them getting better than we did over a decade ago.”
But experts warn that it is too early to declare victory in the war on AIDS. Despite improvements in treatment, there is still no cure in sight.
“AIDS is everybody’s business,” says Communicable Disease Control Investigator Guy Reyes who has worked for Chicago’s Public Health Department since the onset of AIDS in 1986. “Here we are 10 years later and while deaths from the disease are down, AIDS is still alive and well,” says Reyes, a member of Local 505 (Council 31). “People still need to be careful.”
Reyes points out that AFSCME members confront AIDS every day on the job, in their personal lives and in the community. “It is essential that we continue to battle AIDS in any way we can: physi-cally, emotionally and spiritually. The fight is not over yet.”
NO CURE. While new drugs help AIDS victims live longer, healthier lives, the disease remains fatal.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, weakens the body’s immune system so that common illnesses like pneumonia can become killers. The new generation of anti-AIDS drugs — called protease inhibitors — strengthens the body’s immune system. Taken in combination, these “drug cocktails” enable those who are HIV positive to fight off other diseases.
Keeping tabs on these new drug therapies is important to Shattuck Hospital Risk Management Coordinator Kathy Purcell, LPN, who is president of Local 1114.
“The good news is that patients who can abide by the strict regimen of taking these new drugs will basically improve their quality of life and their longevity,” says Purcell. “The bad news is that people are thinking the cocktail is a cure, but it is not: There is a long way to go.”
TAKING PRECAUTIONS. Health care workers at Shattuck Hospital have experienced a change of atmosphere. Fortier, who is studying to become an RN, recalls several years ago how three patients died within a 10-hour period. “It was really tough for all of us to handle because we spend so much time getting to know the patients and addressing their emotional needs as well as their physical ones,” she says.
Today, however, the AIDS unit treats 600 people in an ambulatory care setting in addition to 35 hospitalized patients. “They are coming in for treatment, dressing up and wearing more smiles and positive attitudes than ever before,” says Barrows. “Many seem to be excited about the new medications that they believe will help them live longer and possibly beat this disease.”
Although they are pleased that AIDS research has produced new and more effective treatments, Barrows and Fortier say that many workers do not understand that it is still too early to let down their guard. “AIDS is a risk no matter where you are in any hospital. But by working in this unit, I know what I’m dealing with and therefore take the necessary precautions,” says Fortier.
HIV is carried in the blood, in any other body fluid that contains blood (including vaginal and cervical fluids and semen), and in any body fluid that has visible blood in it. Infection can occur through blood contact with an HIV-infected fluid, including during sex. Hospital workers and others must continue to protect themselves against exposure. Unfortunately, many people assume that the AIDS crisis is over and are engaging in practices that put their life and health at risk.
AIDS IN THE STREETS. Surveys by the National Center for Health Statistics show that teenage sexual activity has declined in the 1990s. But Maryland Social Worker Willie Wigfall doesn’t see much change in the behavior of the teenage moms she counsels in the Adolescent Foster Care unit of the state Department of Social Services.
“Teens, especially, think they are invincible, and that contracting AIDS just will not happen to them,” says Wigfall, who is a member of Local 2203 (Council 92). “They are just not practicing safe sex.”
AIDS may be in retreat, but Wigfall’s message — and that of other health officials — remains unchanged: “When you play with fire you will get burned.”
By Venida RaMar Marshall
