The first documented incidents of AIDS in the United States
occurred in Los Angeles in 1981. Those first diagnosed with the
disease were treated at the UCLA Medical Center.
By 1982, the terrifying new disease had become widespread
throughout the country. Now it is unquestionably a worldwide
epidemic.
Distant countries like Romania and South Africa are waging
ongoing battles against the virus that is wiping out entire
generations of people.
But on the college campus, many UCLA students may feel they are
sheltered from the disease.
“I think there is a general sense among young people that
they are immortal and no risks that they take will have
consequences at this age,” said Edwin Bayrd, executive
director of the UCLA AIDS Institute.
“They feel that they’re safer at UCLA than in the
world,” Bayrd said.
A study last year found that many UCLA medical students, who are
arguably well-informed on how HIV is contracted, were partaking in
the same risky behaviors ““ such as unprotected sex ““ as
those of the same age in South Los Angeles, where there is a higher
incidence of HIV/AIDS.
Nonetheless, the AIDS epidemic remains a priority to researchers
as the UCLA AIDS Institute is conducting wide-ranging research in
therapeutic drugs, which are hoped to boost an HIV-positive
patient’s immune systems.
“You might say (the therapies) roll back the clock for
these people,” said Bayrd.
Chandice Covington, a UCLA AIDS Institute researcher, is
currently in Kenya searching for a solution to the vertical
transmission of HIV from mothers to babies.
Ten percent of Kenyan babies are born with the virus. Of those
initially born without the disease, half contract the disease from
the breast milk of their AIDS-infected mothers.
By using a breast pump, Covington has stimulated the flow of
breast milk from HIV-negative women like the grandmothers and aunts
of these babies, who receive this milk instead of that of their
mothers, decreasing the chance of vertical transmission.
“This is a brilliantly innovative and fairly inexpensive
approach to solving the problem no one could solve,” Bayrd
said.
Scientists at the UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research and
Education, affiliated with the UCLA AIDS Institute, currently are
conducting clinical trials on a gene therapy study for AIDS
treatment.
The treatment inserts a gene that codes for an enzyme that cuts
out sections of the AIDS virus. The gene then is placed in blood
cells, which can proliferate in the patient’s body, said
Ronald Mitsuyasu, associate director of CARE.
The efficacy of this treatment will be determined within a year;
the treatment is projected to be available on the market in six
years.
“The hope is that the amount of virus produced by
(patients) will be a minimal amount such that they won’t need
to continue on their anti-viral therapy,” Mitsuyasu said.
If successful, the one-time gene therapy procedure will offer
AIDS patients an alternative to the side effects and daily
ingestion of current drug cocktails.
No matter what form, AIDS medication is expensive, and not
everyone can afford it.
The Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment
Services and the UCLA AIDS Institute will present a cost-benefit
analysis to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he issues a revised
state budget in May.
The analysis will map out financing options for AIDS drugs
assistance programs in California.
“We’re really helping to advise the state on
something to help improve the lives of people with HIV,” said
Mark Etzel, executive director of CHIPTS.
Aside from work being done in the labs, there are other signs
that AIDS awareness is increasing among UCLA students.
The third annual Dance Marathon, a 26-hour event that raises
money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, took
place last weekend. The money raised by the marathon will be used
to fund pediatric AIDS research at the UCLA AIDS Institute.
“The dancers are committing just a weekend and helping
people have a future,” said Wunmi Onile-Ere, public relations
chair for Dance Marathon.
The Dance Marathon raised 50 percent more money this year than
the previous year, and participation in the student-run event has
consistently doubled each year.
“There are stigmas (about AIDS) right here in Los
Angeles,” Bayrd said. “AIDS prevention and education
efforts reflect all the cultural complexities and biases that exist
in our society and amplify them.”
These stigmas can cause serious problems. For example, a hidden
epidemic of HIV in China was linked to a governmental blood drive,
in which contaminated needles were reused to draw blood.
Women in many developing countries don’t feel they can
seek treatment for AIDS because cultural norms make seeking
treatment something usually only men do, Bayrd said.
These gender norms surrounding AIDS abound in the United States
as well.
“The country doesn’t acknowledge (situational
homosexuality in jail), so they don’t give (out) condoms
(there),” Bayrd said.
“The penal system is a promoter of HIV infections,”
he added.
HIV testing can contribute greatly to decreasing the spread of
AIDS.
UCLA students can receive a free, anonymous test at the Arthur
Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center. The test results can also
be destroyed upon request.
“HIV Research: the Next Generation,” a convention to
be hosted by the UCLA AIDS Institute, CHIPTS and Charles Drew
University on April 13 in Covel Commons, will feature the AIDS
research of undergraduate and graduate students.