AIDS AND HIV AFFECT HUNDREDS IN REGION

There are approximately 100 people in the 22-county Southeast Missouri region who currently are in case management for AIDS or HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.

But Ted Fedler, president of the AIDS Project of Southeast Missouri, estimates another 300 people may be infected with the virus.

Missouri Department of Health statistics, dating back to 1982, have under reported the problem, Fedler believes.

For example, the state reports just 28 cases of AIDS in Cape Girardeau County over the past 12 years.

"The numbers are very misleading. They don't show the real problem," said Fedler.

Dealing with the problems of AIDS is the goal of the AIDS Project, an organization founded last year.

The group, which has about 175 members, will hold a series of fund-raising events over the next several months.

The initial event will be a basketball game today between Cape Girardeau police and Southeast Missouri State University coaches. The game will begin at 1 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center. A donation of $3 a person will be requested for admission.

The AIDS group also plans to have a booth at the SEMO District Fair next month.

October is National AIDS Awareness Month. Recognizing that fact, the group will hold a "Kick-off to Awareness" at Big Al's nightclub in Cape Girardeau on Sept. 30.

Some of the money raised from the various events will be used to help secure not-for-profit status for the organization.

Most of the money would be used to help secure matching federal and private grants. That would allow the group to provide financial, housing, medical and transportation assistance to AIDS patients in Southeast Missouri, and perhaps open satellite offices in the region.

The funds also would be used to better educate the public about AIDS.

Laura Plumb is co-chairperson of the fund-raising efforts.

"Right now, our big push is preventing the spread. That is why we are having so many fund raisers," she said.

Plumb said that in many cases, persons suffering from AIDS are ostracized by their friends and families.

"These people are sick and dying, and it is sad that there is not compassion for them, that they have to live so privately and die alone."

The AIDS Project holds a monthly potluck supper, which is often the only social contact for area residents suffering from AIDS.

Persons interested in the AIDS Project can contact the organization at (314) 339-9588.

A person can be infected with AIDS through sexual contact or intravenous drug use. A mother can pass on the disease to her baby.

"There are so many different ways to get it," said Plumb.

Worldwide, 75 percent of the cases are in the heterosexual community.

But she said the organization must word against the "hard prejudice" of those who identify AIDS as the exclusive problem of homosexuals.

"People have gotten in my face and said it is a gay disease and they deserve to die."

Over the past 13 years nationwide, a total of 361,509 AIDS cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Through last December, 220,871 people had died.

AIDS is now the leading cause of death in American men, aged 25-44, and the fourth leading cause of death for women in the same age group.

Since 1982, more than 5,000 AIDS cases have been reported to the Missouri Department of Health. Statewide, more than 2,600 individuals have died of the disease.