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AIDS Awareness

Dispelling Myths

Published March 25, 2008 11:07 AM by Suzanne Steppie
I'm continually amazed that, 27 years into the AIDS pandemic, there are people who still think you can contract the disease through casual contact.

I am not exaggerating the following stories:

1) I speak every couple of months at a nursing school. I talk about our program, the LPN's role, and AIDS education and awareness. I had a student ask me if a person who was HIV positive made some cookies and wanted to be vindictive by putting his infected blood into the cookies would she be at risk for infection.

I think I stood there for a minute with a very confused look on my face. I was waiting for a punch line or someone to jump out and tell me I was on Candid Camera or something.

As it turned out, sadly, this was a legitimate question. It took great composure on my part to answer her without choking her. A nursing student!

2) I recently received a call at work from a woman who had just learned her husband was HIV positive. They have three small children, she told me, and she was concerned about her husband having contact with the kids when they horsed around, ate together or shared the bathroom.

I reassured her that these activities do not spread HIV and that she and the kids were perfectly safe going about their normal routines.

These two instances are of great concern to me. First, if nursing school students are asking questions like this, what in the world are they being taught? The second, sadly, probably reflects a large majority of people still thinking HIV is spread casually.

Still, I chose to use both opportunities as one of those "teachable moments" all nurses encounter. I gave the data. I explained the life cycle of the HIV virus and how it is and isn't transmitted. I reassured them that we do know how HIV is transmitted and that we've dispelled many myths.

HIV/AIDS education is woven into every aspect of what I do for my patients, their families and the public at large. I hope my fellow nurses understand and arm themselves with the knowledge that's needed regarding HIV/AIDS. It's scary out there.

People need to know and understand the facts.

posted by Suzanne Steppie
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1 comments
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Thanks, all, for your comments — much appreciated. It’s always nice to hear from other nurses. All of your comments are things that I say in my talks to the nursing students and to the general public when I’m challenged with the "gay-disease" issue.

The CDC in 2006 released a set of guidelines that said all people ages 13-64 should be tested at least once; and those who are at higher risk (i.e. IV drug users) more frequently. Twenty-five percent of HIV-positive people do not know they are positive. For whatever reason: fear, stigma … these people generally find out when they show up at the doctor's office or in the ED with their flu-like symptoms or some other infection and an alert practitioner does an HIV test.

The point is to get to people sooner so we can get them treated. Also, as Shirley noted, we want to "normalize" HIV and treat it like all other diseases. By testing everyone at least once, the goal is to make it like any other blood test — no consent form, no "dark room" meeting.

One must be sensitive in how you deliver any abnormal test, but HIV holds the greatest of all stigmas. By making the test routine, we could also decrease the stigma by not targeting a specific population. The fastest growing HIV-infected population right now is women. Specifically, African American women.

So, as Ann rightly points out, this is not a "gay disease." AIDS does not discriminate.

I believe HIV/AIDS education should start in middle school and be part of a comprehensive sexual education program. Education is the key.
Suzanne Steppie March 31, 2008 7:46 AM

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