New AIDS cases
drop in islands

But the epidemic is far from over,
experts say at a conference

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

New cases of AIDS in Hawaii have been decreasing but they are also shifting in different demographic categories, and the epidemic is far from over, state officials said at a Waikiki conference yesterday.

In contrast to the mainland, however, new infections here from injected drug use have dropped, due largely to the state's needle exchange program, Dr. Alan Katz, University of Hawaii professor of epidemiology and laboratory director for the STD/AIDS Diamond Head Clinic, said at the "Confronting HIV/AIDS" conference at the Hawaii Prince Hotel.

He also said people are living longer with HIV because of better drugs and treatment, so AIDS is showing up more among older people.

Katz presented statistics on Hawaii AIDS cases from 1983-2000 showing increases in the proportion of cases among females, heterosexuals, Hawaiians and part Hawaiians and age groups 40 to 49 and 50 and over.

He cited significant decreases in the proportion of Caucasians with AIDS, in the number of 20- to 29-year-olds with the disease, and the proportion of homosexual male cases.

An estimated 1,093 people were known to have AIDS at the end of last year, up from 1,039 at the end of 2000, and it is estimated that 2,300 to 3,200 islanders have HIV, a relatively stable number, officials said.

Hawaii's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with state-community cooperation, supportive policies and laws, could be a model for other areas, said Nancy Kern, STD/AIDS prevention coordinator.

Kern described comprehensive efforts by hundreds of people and organizations since the mid-1980s to increase HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment services and protect HIV-positive people from discrimination.

"All efforts were directed toward one goal: stopping the spread of HIV," she said.

She said a sterile needle exchange does work.

"It saves lives and these lives are worth saving," Kern said.

Jamie Kahale, 38-year-old mother of two children, ages 12 and 16, said she has lived with HIV for 12 years. Her husband died of AIDS in 1995.

One of the first things she was told when diagnosed, she said, is that people with a positive mental attitude live longer. With her husband in the hospital dying, it was tough to keep that positive attitude, she said, but she made a choice: "I could live to die or live to live with this disease. My choice was to live.

"Being HIV positive, in all honesty, has given me purpose," Kahale said.

She read everything she could about the disease and became involved with the Life Foundation's speaker's bureau.

"It gave me a new perspective to living with the disease," she said. "Being able to share my story with other people gave me meaning."