Dixie Dispatch 2002.15.12

Larry Yates' Story

     Ten years ago, when Judy Warren lost her younger brother, she knew she couldn't stand to keep seeing young people lose their lives because of AIDS. Ms. Warren went on to start the Midland Area AIDS Support (MAAS), an organization that gives support and love to HIV positives and informs young people of the facts of AIDS.

"They don't realize that AIDS is here, it's in their schools, and it's the number one killer amongst young people between twenty-four and forty-four years old, but if you subtract five, six years from that, that will be when they contracted the HIV, when they were eighteen," said Ms. Warren. "What we do is tell the people all the risks and suffering between the time of contracting the virus to the death. I believe that everybody has the right to know about it, mainly young people. They're our future and this is their world. They need to know that the best part of life is after high school, but they have to live through this part to get to the other".

     For Ms. Warren, there is an extreme of organizations like the MAAS that has not been teaching the students correctly.
"They go to the schools and teach how to use a condom, this makes the young people believe tat if you use a condom you are protected. This can kill them. There is just one kind of preservatives that might be effective, and that is the Latex condom with axonal and spermicide, but even gives you no guarantee."

     There is not as popular as HIV but is killing just as many women. This disease is transmitted from the skin around where the condom fits and is called HPV, a rival disease that causes cervical cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.

"Condoms can't protect you against it and nobody is immune to it," said Ms. Warren. Condoms are really sensitive and fragile; they have to be kept in a cool dry place. They can't be kept in a purse, pocket or wallet, because the temperature and also if you sit on it will break, making it not effective anymore.

     "Condoms are not perfect, they might have holes and wreathe, and people can't see it. If in a pinhead you can have three hundred thousand HIV, imagine how many can be in that hole. You don't need more than one virus to kill you," said Ms. Warren. A good place to keep the condom would be in the kitchen cabinet, inside a box." According to Ms. Warren, the worst thing to do is wear two condoms at the same time.

     "People think that if they put two condoms on they will be protected, but this is not true. If you put a lubricant condom over another, they will break!" The kind of lubricant used is important too. A water base lubricant is necessary, because the others will disintegrate it, making it no longer effective.

      A lot of people think that safe sex is the same as sex with a condom. We already know this is not true. So, what would safe sex be? "If you want to be safe, go with your partner to get tested. Three months later, come back and get tested again. The virus takes at least three months to appear in the exam," said Ms Warren. If you are thinking, "I would like to be tested but HIV tests are expensive," luckily you are wrong. At MAAS, the give free HIV tests to everyone. "You just have to call and mark an appointment. We guarantee that the result won't be revealed," said Ms. Warren.

The number of AIDS cases is scary:
· 300 new cases of AIDS cases every day
· One out of every 500 UTPB student is HIV positive
· 1,500 to 2,000 individuals in the Permian Basin are HIV+ and don't know it
· 2.5 million teens get sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, each year most are heterosexual
· The number of teens with HIV infection has doubled in the past 10 years
· Texas is fourth in the nation with AIDS cases.

      Those numbers have to change, and that is what the MAAS is trying to do. Anybody; can help, first, taking care of your and the next life, and second transmitting to people this message.

      If you want to help the MAAS, get information about AIDS, or get a HIV test, the MAAS telephone number is: (432) 520-3055 or (432) 684-7821 and it's located on 800 W. Texas Street, in Midland.

For Urgent Inquiries:
1-800-299-AIDS
Texas AIDS Hotline
( 800 ) 299 - 2437