And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 1999 08:33:00 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Edmonton: Native AIDS numbers, "scary"
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Thursday, August 5, 1999
Native AIDS numbers scary
By MINDELLE JACOBS, EDMONTON SUN Health professionals are reluctant to call it a
looming epidemic, but perhaps they're just being polite and don't want to frighten
people.
On the other hand, a bit of a scare may be in order - a clarion call to help curb yet
another evil that's decimating the aboriginal community.
As well as poverty, unemployment, and drug and alcohol abuse, natives face the scourge
of HIV infection, and they're contracting the virus at a much greater rate than the
rest of the population.
Although natives comprise only 6% of Albertans, 25% of new cases of HIV reported last
year, where ethnic background was given, were aboriginal.
And that only represents those who bothered to get tested, says Dr. Bryce Larke,
Alberta Health's medical consultant on HIV/AIDS.
The bottom line? We simply don't know how bad the situation is.
The figures we do have, however, are frightening enough. While the number of Alberta
AIDS cases has dropped dramatically (from 132 in 1994 to only 10 in the first six
months of 1999), the HIV figures are grim.
There were 75 cases reported by the end of June and Larke expects 150 by year's end.
"The potential for it to spread rapidly (among natives) can lead to significant health
problems if they're not aware of how to protect themselves," says Larke.
That's where the Feather of Hope Aboriginal AIDS Prevention Society comes in.
On a shoestring budget ($121,000 from the province and the feds for 1999-2000) and
with a skeleton staff of five, the nine-year-old organization is trying to educate
natives across the province about the dangers of AIDS and provide support services.
The two community development workers (one for northern Alberta and one for the south)
basically live out of a suitcase, driving from community to community with their
safe-sex message.
Last year, a third worker handled Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary - travelling by bus -
but that position has been cut.
The burnout rate in the job is about a year, says Charity Laboucan, 25, who covers the
northern part of the province.
"I constantly wish I had more time. I need to be out there all the time," says
Laboucan, originally from Little Buffalo.
To put things in perspective, it costs more than $150,000 in medical expenses to treat
every AIDS patient.
But Feather of Hope is so squeezed for cash Laboucan is leasing a truck out of her own
salary to bring her AIDS-prevention strategies to far-flung reserves and Metis
settlements. (The group asks native communities to help cover expenses such as
mileage.)
"It makes doing the job that needs to be done difficult," says group frontline
co-ordinator Jessica Daniels. "The expectation is really high on what we're supposed
to address in the community and we can't do it (effectively)."
The challenge is huge. There's still the misconception in remote aboriginal
communities that AIDS only happens in urban areas or to non-natives, says Laboucan.
And natives in cities trying to survive day to day don't tend to think about a disease
that might kill them in 10 years, notes Phil Rauch, chairman of the Alberta Community
Council on HIV, an advocacy group.
"Sometimes people just sleep with each other for shelter," he says bluntly.
Then there are those aboriginals who just don't care. So many young natives die
already from from other causes - suicide, car accidents, homicides - that "HIV is just
one more thing in the mix," says Rauch.
Feather of Hope is doing its best to banish that malaise.
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
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UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
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