AIDS is killing more people in Utah than ever before and it's time to do something about it.
That's what Sen. Pete Suazo, D-Salt Lake, told a crowd gathered for World Aids Day 1997 at the Utah Capitol Monday night. More than 75 Utahns lit candles and said prayers for the millions who have died from AIDS and who are living with the deadly disease."Our next legislative session is about four weeks away," he said. "It's time we stopped the denial, start educating and start preventing."
Suazo cited a U.N. study released last week that revealed AIDS cases have increased dramatically over the last year. More than 30 million people worldwide live with the deadly disease and 16,000 more contract HIV every day. One of every 100 sexually active adults, ages 15 to 49, has the disease.
In Utah, HIV is spreading at alarming rates, especially among women and children, Suazo said. At least 1,479 people in Utah are infected. Suazo lost his sister, Deana Suazo, 31, to the disease four years ago.
The most powerful weapon to fight the spread is education, he said. He plans to push legislation that will add curriculum to Utah schools that will teach young people how to protect themselves.
If those who don't have HIV don't contract it, the disease will phase out. The only way to teach prevention is through education, he said.
Matt Ross, who graduated from Skyline High last June, agrees.
"I learned about AIDS in sophomore health," said Ross, now a freshman at the University of Utah. "It wasn't very effective because it was from a textbook."
Ross, who attended the vigil, will take the possibility of contracting the disease more seriously. Listening to personal accounts of how the disease has destroyed lives - rather than reading it from a book - got him thinking, he said.
Members of the crowd were encouraged to share their experiences.
Amber Northern lost her father when she was 18. She was 13 when he was diagnosed with the HIV virus.
"You don't see the person sick and alone on the news," said Northern, adding that she spent most of her teen years taking care of her father. He died in 1994 at 39.
Living with AIDS is difficult, especially in Utah, said Steven Black, who contracted HIV 15 years ago. The Utah native lived in San Francisco and Seattle before moving back to Utah to care for his 82-year-old mother.
Residents in other West Coast states seem to worry about those living with the disease more than residents in Utah, he said. Black, 41, plans to work toward changing attitudes here.
For example, he earns too much money - $750 a month - to get state medical benefits. He has to give up more than $300 of his income to receive benefits and still doesn't have access to all the medication, he said. He can't move to a state with better programs because he can't leave his mother.