PARENTS WITH AIDS NEED MORE SUPPORT

Study Lists Challenges In Raising Healthy Kids

LOS ANGELES -- Susan Gutierrez had just overcome a 13-year addiction
to heroin in 1995 when she tested positive for the virus that causes
AIDS. Despite the risks, she decided to start a new life and family.

Her daughters, 2-year-old Ryanna and 6-month-old Rebecca, tested
negative for the virus, but Gutierrez discovered that raising healthy
children presents unique social, financial and emotional hardships in
the uncertainty of a parent's HIV diagnosis.

``I just trusted in God,'' said the 37-year-old Glendale mother who
was laid off last week from a secretarial job.

A study released Thursday details the challenges faced by the 62,800
HIV-positive Americans with children younger than 18. An estimated
120,000 children have parents infected with the virus.

The findings show the need for new support systems and programs as the
disease increasingly affects the poor, minorities and women, said
study co-author Mark Schuster, a Rand institute researcher and
pediatrician at the University of California-Los Angeles.

``Many of these families could use more assistance,'' Schuster said.
``This is going to grow. The epidemic is spreading at a faster rate
among women, and it is also spreading faster among heterosexual men.''

Despite the medical risks, 12 percent of the women -- like Gutierrez
- -- give birth to at least one child after diagnosis. About 14 percent
of those children test HIV positive, according to the study.

Gutierrez and her healthy children can rely on support from family
members like her husband and older sister. For many women in the same
situation, such help isn't available.

The study found that 20 percent of HIV-positive parents reported
having no close friends, and 16 percent said they saw other family
members only once a month or less.

Many parents also were in an advanced stage of the illness. About 21
percent said they required hospitalization during the previous six
months, and 18 percent needed home health care. Forty-five percent
showed symptoms of psychiatric disorders.

Thirteen percent said they went without medical care at least once in
the past six months because they needed money for food, clothing and
housing, while 8 percent went without the necessities because they
needed money for health care.

In all, 28 percent of HIV-positive adults have children younger than
18. Of those, 60 percent are women and 18 percent are men. Seventy-six
percent of the women and 34 percent of the men said they cared for the
children at home.

The study, published in July's American Journal of Public Health, was
sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Interviews took place in 1996 and 1997, and included 2,864 adults
receiving health care for HIV infection. The data is part of the HIV
Cost and Services Utilization Study, the first wide-ranging survey of
HIV patients on a nationwide scale.

There is good news. New medications have decreased death rates, and
infected parents can spend more time with their children, said Carol
Levine, director of the Families and Health Care Project at the United
Hospital Fund in New York.

``It's providing the opportunity for children to have their parents
for longer times,'' she said. ``But it's also creating a situation
where it's very difficult to keep the quality of life at what it
should be for a family.''