Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 23 December 2004 — Page 5

The Muncie Times • December 23, 2004 •Page 5

NEWS BRIEFS

Continued from page 4 "They don’t feel like they should live. They become clinically depressed, hopeless, and uncertain about their future and emotionally numb. They end up self-medicat-ing with alcohol, drugs, tranquillizers, sleeping pills, etc. and it becomes a vicious cycle." According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), "People with alcohol use disorders are more likely than the general population to contract HIV. Similarly, people with HIV are more likely to abuse alcohol at some time during their lives. Alcohol use is associated with high-risk sexual behaviors and injection drug use, two major modes of HIV transmission." At a time when society promotes using condoms to prevent becoming infected with HIV or other sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), "bug chasers" are participating in unprotected sex in an attempt to contract the deadly disease. Other reasons cited for having unprotected sex with someone who is HIVpositive include "living life on the edge," "showing your love for your positive partner" "acceptance into social circles," and "thoughts that getting HIV is inevitable, so why avoid it?" Armstrong, the magazine editor, is a gay man and is HIV-negative. "Being HIV-positive got turned into meaning you are truly gay and that is a really dangerous thing. That confusion is really what underlies this phenomenon." Douaihy says there have not been any research studies or scientific data

looking at the trend of people who intentionally seek to become infected with the

virus.

"This whole concept of gift giving and the meaning of HIV is being manipulated to meet specific goals and they [bug chasers and gift givers] are distorting the meaning of HIV to fulfill what they want it to mean," he says. "The whole intimacy issue is a big one. Some people feel they can’t be intimate unless they let that person infect them. They don’t consider it an infection - it’s perceived as giv-

ing a gift."

It is believed that most "bug chasers" find their "gift giver" on the Internet, using sites that

actively promote having unprotected sex. Also, according

to Cornelius Baker, executive director of the WitmanWalker clinic, a communitybased health organization in Washington, D.C.; conversion parties take place in most major cities. "Some parties occur in hotels and we look for events that go on in Washington and try to intervene when we know they are going to occur," explains Baker. "We have to acknowledge that some people do look at it as an ultimate sacrifice. They give themselves fully to someone ultimately risking their

lives."

Brett Parson, head of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison unit of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, says these parties are dangerous, but not illegal. "As a police officer, we see victimization going

on to the extent that people are engaging in high-risk activities that result in lifechanging illness that can’t be reversed. What we try and do is educate people in making sound judgments and decisions," he explains. There are laws that prohibit the deliberate spreading of AIDS in more than 24 states, including California, Idaho, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan and South Carolina. Under Bill SB 705 in California, "any person afflicted with any contagious, infectious, or communicable disease that willfully exposes him or herself to another, and any person who willfully exposes another person afflicted with a disease of that nature,

is guilty of a misdemeanor." In New York, it is. a felony to knowingly transmit a venereal disease. Armstrong, who has lost many friends and loved ones to HIV, says, "If you’re sick enough in the head to give someone HIV on purpose you should be put away. You’re robbing someone of their health and that’s not right." Baker says bug chasing happens in a small number, but should be taken seriously. "This does occur periodically and we find it unfortunate, but this is a very small number of cases. The reality is that most people that become infected never knew they were at risk," he says. "HIV is not a fantasy. It is real. It is serious. One moment is not worth the rest of your life."

Report Shows Health Implications Of Lead In Drinking Water in Seattle

School District

Recent testing throughout the Seattle Public School District revealed that many schools have at least one drinking fountain with lead levels that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency guideline for lead in school drinking water. In a new report, the Northwest Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (NW PEHSU), based at the University of Washington School of Medicine, says that it is extremely unlikely that any child will have a blood lead level that would require follow-up medical

testing and care. The report also recommends that the school district set up an independent task force to formulate a dis-

trict policy for dealing with lead in drinking water. Dr. Catherine Karr, director of the NW PEHSU, says the unit became concerned when stories began appearing in Seattle media about lead levels in school

water fountains.

"We recognized that there was a lack of available information about how these lead levels might affect children's health, _ Karr said. _We did this study because, as a regional resource for expertise on children's environmental health, we felt a responsibility to have the answers to questions concerned parents, educators and others may have about the possible effects of these lead levels in the school water supply." The report says that some children are at higher risk than others to have high blood lead levels, and may

require both blood tests and medical care if they are also drinking water from drinking fountains with comparatively high lead levels: * Children under 6 years of age who drink from school water that consistently exceeds a lead level of 200 to 300 parts per billion. * Children under 6 years old who have medical conditions, such as nutritional deficiencies like anemia, calcium or vitamin D deficiencies that may increase their absorption of lead. * Children who have pre-existing neurological problems like autism, seizure disorders or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may be more vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead. * Children who have pre-existing blood lead levels that are higher than expected due to other significant lead exposures, from living with family members who work with lead on the job in manufacturing or who participate in hobbies that result in lead exposure, such as working with stained glass or using lead-based glazes on pottery. Based on its review, NW PEHSU doesn't recommend routine blood lead screening for all Seattle school children. However, if individual families have special concerns about children's lead exposure; they can request testing from a health care provider or with the help of NW PEHSU. The unit strongly supports efforts to keep children's lead exposure as low as possible, and endorses the School District's adoption of EPAguidelines calling for less than 20 parts per billion. The NW PEHSU Continue on page 6

"HIV is not a fantasy. It is real. It is serious. One moment is not worth the rest of your life."