TEACHING THE YOUNG ABOUT AIDS

Though discrimination and stigma run deep, Taiwanese activists and
officials are pushing for greater awareness about HIV/AIDS to thwart
an emerging epidemic

Thunderous applause erupts as Hank (his English name is used to
protect his identity) finishes a speech about contracting and living
with AIDS. A young man - one of more than 400 in attendance - wends
his way through the lecture hall to shake Hank's hand, then embraces
him in a bear hug. Over by the stage, young women line up to have
their picture taken hugging Regan Hofmann, a guest speaker.

Handshakes and hugs, let alone posing for photographs, is not the
kind of response people with HIV/AIDS usually get in Taiwan. More
often, they are shunned by their families, ignored by colleagues and
branded as pariahs.

Hofmann - who contracted HIV eleven years ago through a heterosexual
relationship - visited Taipei last week to promote HIV/AIDS awareness
and show the disease threatens more than just the gay community or drug users.

"Taiwan is lucky in that you are ahead of the [HIV/AIDS] epidemic," she said.

Compared with the estimated 1.4 million people infected with HIV in
North America and 740,000 in Western Europe, the latest Center for
Disease Control (CDC) figures put the number of Taiwanese living with
HIV and AIDS at around 12,000.

Though this number is relatively low, a laissez-faire attitude
towards condoms, the skyrocketing spreading of the disease among
intravenous drug users (IDU), and discrimination, ignorance and fear
- - and the consequent reluctance of people to get tested - mean Taiwan
is ripe for an HIV epidemic. If 12,000 seems like a small figure, CDC
officials believe the number of HIV cases may actually be between two
and five times higher because there is currently no national HIV/AIDS
testing day in Taiwan.

"To make the data more clear, we need to run a campaign for HIV
testing day," said Yen Muh-yong (AC 1/4}+/-e), director of the
Division of Disease Control and Prevention with Taipei's Department of Health.

Researchers say the sooner people are tested for the disease the
greater control the medical community can exert in ensuring it
doesn't spread. Early diagnosis of the disease can also help prolong
the patient's life.

"Hofmann is the so-called non-risk group. But her story tells us that
these groups should know that they too are at risk," Yen said.

According to CDC statistics, heterosexuals make up 23.9 percent of
reported cases of HIV and 43.4 percent of those with AIDS, proving
the popular assumption that it affects only the high-risk population is false.

"We notice that IDU has passed to the female group and the female
group through prostitution to the heterosexual group to the baby
group. If that keeps on growing than we will face heterosexuals
[becoming] a general risk factor," he said.

Knowledge And Behavior

HIV/AIDS education that actually changes behavior is the most
important task in curbing a potential epidemic.

Yen says addicts in Taiwan know a lot about needle sharing and how to
dispose of dirty syringes. But that knowledge is worthless if it
doesn't affect behavior.

"After you become addicted you just want the drugs," he said.

Changing the behavior of addicts, Yen said, starts with changing the
behavior of law enforcement. He said police used to bust addicts at
needle exchange centers, pushing drug users underground and
increasing the likelihood that addicts will use infected needles.

Though there have been positive changes in Taiwan over the past three
years - police are strongly discouraged from arresting addicts at
needle exchange centers - Yen says much work remains to be done.

"Taiwanese [are] a conservative people," he said. "We do not take sex
education in our official class. It's in our textbooks [but it's not
taught in the classroom]."

This is a sentiment echoed by Twu Shiing-jer, former health minister
and current Director of the Taiwan AIDS Foundation.

"Many teachers don't know how to teach it [sex education]. So they
have the students read about it by themselves," he said.

Considering HIV is increasingly a disease that affects the young, Yen
says it's important safe sex education starts young age.

"We still face some difficulty trying to put condom machines in the
school," he says.

Public officials are responding to parents' concerns that condom
machines in high schools will encourage promiscuity. Oddly, many
parents fear that raising awareness about the disease increases the
likelihood of getting it.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Such fears have filtered into the business community. Twu said many
businesses refuse to support HIV/AIDS foundations or conduct in-house
training because of the stigma surrounding the disease.

"Another reason is because if you put the money in people ask, 'Are
you gay?'" he said.

At a recent HIV/AIDS summit held in Taipei, Anthony Pramualratana,
executive director of the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS, said
the business and labor communities need to get involved.

Pramualratana's foundation works with Thailand's ministry of labor to
provide courses on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. After taking
the course, the company receives accreditation showing they are
following proper labor standards. His foundation has so far
accredited 4,111 companies in Thailand, covering more than 300,000 employees.

"Taiwan needs a champion, a champion who writes formal letters that
say, 'You have to get involved here,'" he said.

Yen agreed, saying that putting a story like Hofmann's into the
curriculum was really important, to show students the scope of the risk.

Having role models that people can relate to, such as former US
basketball star Magic Johnson, is a necessary step that has already
occurred in North America and Europe. Twu also suggests an NGO that
messages between different foundations and organizations.

"In Malaysia they have 22 NGOs and there is [a] 23rd to integrate all
the others," Two said.

Though the business community has been slow to get involved, there is
no shortage of people giving money to the Harmony Home Association, a
non-profit group that cares for people with HIV/AIDS.

The foundation's secretary general Nicole Yang (."+/-P) says 85
percent of her funding comes from private donors and 15 percent comes
from the government. But Yang says attitudes in Taiwan are changing slowly.

Discrimination Still Exists

Yang cites the recent controversy in Taipei's' Wenshan District and
another hospice her group operates in Kaohsiung - in which neighbors
forced midway homes for HIV/AIDS patients to relocate - as examples
of how communities in Taiwan still discriminate against people with
the disease.

"They think that the people who have HIV/AIDS are drug users or gay
people or the people who have a lot of sex [and] they are a high-risk
population," she said.

Discrimination also remains an issue in the medical community.

"We have HIV/AIDS special clinics or what we call 'assigned centers'
caring for HIV/AIDS [patients]," said Wong Wing-wai (?yYA 1/2A),
medical director of Taipei City's Consortium of Disease Control and
executive secretary of the Drug Abuse Prevention Center (-r((~|M(R)'"
3/4av???ss).

The clinics provide services for everything from obstetrics to
orthopedics to surgery, he said. Their purpose is to give patients
the best possible care in a sympathetic environment. However, the
policy has created a loophole for physicians who don't want to treat
patients with HIV.

"They now have an excuse [to] refer the patient to [assigned centers]
and have no obligation to care for the patient," Wong said.

Because changing adult perceptions is difficult, Yang focuses much of
her considerable energy on educating Taiwan's youth in the public
school system, giving lectures and seminars to students about the
disease and how people get it.

"We bring AIDS patients and the children [with HIV/AIDS] to schools.
It's very useful. It's basic education and it takes time for people
to understand."

Yang said Harmony Home's appeal to schools caused her organization to
change from a non-governmentally regulated volunteer organization to
an officially recognized NGO back in 2004. Since then, schools
throughout the island have called upon their services to educate
students in large audiences about the disease. Her group has made
presentations to 200,000 students throughout Taiwan, or an average of
75,000 students per year.

Hank is often a guest speaker at these lectures. He finds young
students who, before the lecture begins, are afraid to approach him
or children with HIV, will more often than not mob the stage to hug
him after the lecture.