The number of people infected with HIV and AIDS is at an all time high in Massachusetts, according to Public Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Koh, who blamed the stigma attached to the disease for the ever-increasing numbers of infected citizens in the commonwealth.
Koh and the state Department of Public Health released new statistics yesterday at the Westin Copley Hotel where department officials joined by Mayor Thomas Menino and dozens of AIDS activists to commemorate World AIDS Day.
‘Stigma is a co-conspirator in this disease,’ Koh said. ‘It fuels the epidemic and it keeps the virus alive.’
Koh said the department’s recent studies showed 14,000 people in Massachusetts are infected with HIV and AIDS, a ‘grossly under-reported’ number. The study estimates one-third of the people infected are unaware of it, Koh added.
Heterosexual contact is the primary mode of transmission of the disease, surpassing injection drug use and homosexual contact, according to Koh. He also said the study shows black and Hispanic people represent 51 percent of the state’s population living with AIDS and are 10 times more likely to contract the disease than their white counterparts.
‘There are new worldwide estimates of HIV approaching 42 million, but this epidemic does not affect 42 million of us. It affects all of us,’ Koh said. ‘You don’t have to be infected to be affected.’
Koh said the stigma still attached to the disease inhibits communication and education about the disease, prevents discussion, delays timely detection and treatment and isolates people from their families, the health care system and society.
‘The only way to confront this epidemic and defeat it is to confront and defeat the stigma before us,’ Koh said.
One in four Massachusetts citizens believes those who contract HIV through sexual contact or drug use ‘got what they deserved,’ Koh reported. ‘Today we are here to say no one deserves this disease.’
Koh said he strongly disagrees with those who say the fight against AIDS should focus on disease treatment and said the continuation of education and prevention are critical in the fight against AIDS.
‘Disease prevention is absolutely critical,’ he said. ‘Disease prevention is the only way to eliminate this epidemic from our planet.’
Koh was joined during the ceremony by Boston Public Health Commission Executive Director John Auerbach, Massachusetts AIDS Bureau Director Jean McGuire and family members of two AIDS activists who received posthumous awards yesterday presented by Menino and the Public Health Department.
‘More than 5,500 people in Boston are living with AIDS and HIV,’ Menino said. ‘We have to get out there and knock on the doors of some elected officials and let them know there is a crisis out there.’
Menino also said the number of Boston AIDS Walk participants have decreased in recent years and urged AIDS activists in attendance to educate people and let them know ‘the war isn’t over yet.’
‘World AIDS Day is a sobering period of time for us a time when we reflect on where we are in terms of fighting this horrible epidemic,’ Auerbach said. ‘We reflect on the heroes of the epidemic who we lost this year.’
The ‘public health heroes,’ as Koh called them, were Rhoda Creamer and Thomas Fahey, two AIDS activists and pioneers in the fight against the disease in Massachusetts.
Creamer worked for the Boston Public Health Commission for 11 years and created the state’s first and largest needle exchange program, which has served nearly 20,000 people since its creation 10 years ago. Auerbach praised Creamer for her bravery in creating the controversial program, which received much protest and criticism even after the legislation to create it was passed.
Menino received loud applause when he said the city is working to pass legislation legalizing the sale of needles over-the-counter, a law he said would undoubtedly lower the rate of HIV infection for injection drug users who use ‘dirty’ needles.
‘Less people are infected in New Orleans than in Boston because of the legalization of needles being sold over-the-counter,’ Menino said.
Creamer’s son, Mark Steverson, accepted the award on his mother’s behalf, saying, ‘She lived clean and she tried to help everyone … I believe she’s in a better place right now.’
Fran Fahey accepted the second award on behalf of her deceased husband, who lived for many years with the disease and often referred to himself as ‘the man they couldn’t kill.’ Fahey said this was especially ironic because her husband didn’t die of AIDS, but from liver disease coupled with a Hepatitis C infection.
Her husband refused to be called an ‘innocent victim’ of the disease and rather empowered himself and others, Fahey recalled. He helped create numerous AIDS action groups, substance abuse prevention and treatment facilities and worked as a volunteer for groups in Boston, the South Shore and international AIDS communities.
Koh said Fahey can best be remembered by the Longfellow quote: ‘Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and departing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time.’
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