AIDS AWARENESS STRESSED CLOSE TO HOME

The international AIDS conference in Amsterdam is focusing public attention on the global epidemic and sounding alarm bells about the disease, two officials of a local AIDS consortium said Tuesday.

"Hopefully, it will ring an alarm bell in some people and help people realize how widespread the disease is becoming," said Bob Beodeker, chairman-elect of the Southeast Missouri Regional Consortium on AIDS.

Linda Thomason, the consortium's chairperson, said many people still think of AIDS as a disease restricted to homosexuals.

But she said the disease affects both homosexual and heterosexual populations. "This is not a segregated disease," she pointed out. "This is an integrated disease."

The international AIDS conclave has drawn more than 10,000 researchers, physicians and people with AIDS to the Dutch capital for a week of discussions on how to fight the global epidemic.

The disease carries some grim statistics.

"Every 15 to 20 seconds someone in the world is infected with the AIDS virus," said Thomason.

According to the World Health Organization, 10-12 million adults and 1 million children have

been infected by the deadly virus. The majority of them are in Africa and Asia.

Worldwide since Jan. 1, about half of the 1 million newly infected adults have been women, health experts have reported.

By the year 2000, it's estimated, as many as 40 million people may be infected.

The World Health Organization reports that women are becoming infected about as often as men are with the disease that causes AIDS, and most new infections will be in women by the year 2000.

"We have to go back to education as the key thing to turn this epidemic around," said Thomason.

Both Beodeker and Thomason said the regional consortium hopes to help educate people about the disease.

They pointed out that the disease can be spread through sexual intercourse with an infected partner.

"Unless we educate people about safe sex and make people believers about safe sex, it is going to continue to grow," Thomason said.

Beodeker said many people in Southeast Missouri view the HIV virus and AIDS as a distant problem, not something that strikes close to home.

They are wrong, he insists.

"There are people who are HIV positive having sex with people in Cape Girardeau," he said.

Thomason said, "AIDS is not a Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 disease. It doesn't just get spread during business hours."

She said it's important to recognize that the AIDS epidemic reaches into this region. "We do not have a condom over Southeast Missouri to prevent the virus from entering," she remarked.

As of about a year ago, there were 30 residents of Southeast Missouri who had tested positive with the HIV virus, she said.

Beodeker said, however, that the numbers reflect only those who have tested positive. "The virus could be in your system and you may not show symptoms for almost 10 years," he added.

Some participants at the international AIDS conference have criticized the United States, contending the federal government has not done enough to address the deadly disease.

Beodeker said he believes the government can play a greater role in both research towards finding a cure and in educating the public about the disease. He maintained the government also could do more in the area of support services for people suffering from the disease.

Thomason expressed dismay over the limited funding now spent on AIDS research. "It's a shame that you have a disease that in eight years over 40 million people in the world will have and people have to beg pennies for research."

Beodeker said school children need to be informed about AIDS. "There is always that hassle about families not wanting their children to hear about sex in the school systems."

But in this case, he said, it's a matter of life and death. "Ignorance these days can kill you."