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The Huron Expositor, 1995-02-08, Page 3Feature AIDS has human face BY TIM CUMMING Expositor Editor "HIV is a virus but there is a human face behind that virus." These words belong to Russell Carson, who is one of more than 20 people who provide the human faces to HIV and AIDS in Huron County. The Clinton man is one person who has stepped forward to show HIV is a real condition which affects real people, in the heart of Huron County. "I can do more good and bring more recognition by standing up and being counted," he said in an interview last week. "l'm not just 'that guy who's HIV-positive'...I'm Russell." This arca may be in a stage of denial about AIDS, according to Russell. The 32 -year-old says fam- ilies of people with AIDS are very secretive because of the stigma associated with the disease. That doesn't mean, however, that AIDS doesn't exist in Huron. Russell, who has been involved with the Huron HIV/AIDS Network for more than a year, says he would like to see the condition become a subject which can be talked about publicly. 1 want to keep young adults from making that one mistake," he said. "Our teenagers can wait to have sex, it's not too late to wait until you're married or old enough to make a (responsible) decision." In the United States AIDS has surpassed accidents as the number one killer of young adults. Although Canada may be a few years behind the U.S., the figure is frightening. In the next two years more people will die of AIDS than in the past 10 years, according to Russell. One of his main messages is that HIV (the virus which leads to AIDS) can happen to you if you put yourself at any risk. Some young people don't think they could be exposed to AIDS. "Teenagers think they're invin- cible' and nothing will happen to them." Russell was barely out of his teens himself when he contracted the disease. HIV has not only hit Russell's body but .DS has robbed him of a circle of friends. In Toronto, so many of his friends died from the condition that he stopped counting at 75. TIM CUMMING PHOTO LIVING LIFE - Russell Carson may have a condition which is life- threatening but that doesn't stop him from having an attitude of living fife to the fullest. "People don't realize the scope of this thing, they don't realize where it's leading," he said. "They won't consider it that big of'a threat 'til it hits their own family." Russell Carson has no problem talking about his own mortality. "I'm not afraid of death, I have no fear of dying...It's just another adventure in my life." Still, he says it's hard becoming close to the children of a couple ko is friends with through the Network. "I hate that .I'11 have to leave them." When Russell found out he was HIV-positive he spent some time • "People don't realize the scope of this thing..." waiting to die. Then, he decided he would live his life. Today, about eleven years after he contracted the virus which leads W AIDS, Russell is telatively healthy.. Although mfschlevousty'Clainting' that "I do everything my doctor tells me not to", (and puffing On his precious cigarettes) he tries to keep stress down in his life and con- tinues to eat the healthy foods he Huron people often compassionate The Huron County HIV/AIDS Network is providing a program called the ABC's of HIV on March 18, 1995 from 9-4. The course takes place at the OMAFRA build- ing on Don Street in Clinton. At the same time the organization will provide a 'Kids' Conference' for young people. They will receive a basic AIDS education at their level and will Tear about the harm- ful effects of teasing. Many of the people who will attend the ABC's of IIIV will be nurses, palliative care and home care workers who never received AIDS events raise awareness In May there will be a Walk for AIDS in which funds will be raised for the Network. AIDS Awareness Week takes place in the first full week of October and World AIDS Day takes place on Dec. 1. If your church group or organiz- ation would like to have a speaker visit to talk about HIV and AIDS contact the Huron County HIV/AIDS Network's answering machine at 482-1141. Anyone who is interested in volunteering with the Network can call the same numbcr. J Hensall by Liz Sangster 262-2715 Drop-in at- church Join the Hensall Community Drop In on Thursday, Feb. 16 at the Itensall United Church. Activities include foot cart at 10 a.m., exer- cises at 1 p.m. after the meal at 12 noon. There will be cloggcrs to entertain the group and Sandra Feltz, the Public Health Consultant will be giving a presentation. Helen McLean will give a special reading. The day will end with card games. The cost is $4 per person for meal and program. Reserve by Monday noon before to Marg Cole (262- 2304) or Faye Skinner at Town and Country Homemakers (235-0258). education about the disease. The local network, based in Clinton, has also provided courses called 111V 101 and IIIV 201 for people living with HIV or family members. "It's as important to deal with the people affected by the disease as it is to the people infected by the disease," said Russell Carson, a volunteer with the Network. There is a high level of ignorance in Huron County about HIV and AIDS, say two volunteers with the Huron HIV/AIDS Network. Most people in Huron County, however, have been very compas- sionate, say Russell Carson and Elma Plant. "There is a high level of ignor- ance but also a high level of accept- ance of people living with this disease," said Plant. Although the compassionate response is not across-the-board there are many people, especially youths, who are willing to talk about AIDS, said Carson. "People are interested in what's going on out there and they're scared." 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What's important, according to the native of New Brunswick, is not how someone got the disease but how to prevent other people from getting it. He urges people not towait until the next generation of young people contracts HIV before acting. "It would be a terrible thing for a community to wait until its young people started (to die) before the community started opening its arms to help." For Russell, who was once told he had two years to live, HIV is a condition which casts a shadow on his life but it is not something which stops him from living. "The doctors were wrong and I'm hoping I can continue to prove them wrong." As a volunteer with the Huron HIV/AIDS Network Russell Carson speaks to groups about the condi- tion and how it is contracted. "There are a lot of myths out there about how you can get HIV," he said. "If it was as easy as people believe we'd all have HIV, there wouldn't be a person on Earth who doesn't have the virus." Some ways in which HIV can be spread is through homosexual or heterosexual intercourse and through the exchange of blood products such as two people in an accident. ' Sharing needles for drugs or ste- roids is another way of getting the disease. Tattoos and ear piercing can spread the disease if needles are not properly cleaned. .•Oral sex is a lower -risk activity but not a no -risk activity. ' Condoms don't eliminate risk but, used properly, they can reduce the risk of contracting HIV. The concentration of the virus in aativae. isA:aot acknotwledSed to be enough to spread the virus. Deep kissing could spread the virus, however, if two people had a gum disease for instance. "You would have to have an open wound of some sort." 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