AIDS: MAGIC CAN BRING HOPE

The state's HIV care coordinator for Southeast Missouri says she hopes basketball star Magic Johnson will have some inspirational off-the-court influence with boosting the outlook of her HIV patients.

Coordinator Susan Smith said she encourages her patients to stay positive about the future, "to stay involved in life, to stay on the job if they can." Johnson, she said, is "so positive about what he's going to do in the future."

Johnson, 32, disclosed Thursday that he had contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which eventually leads to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, and that he was retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson played 12 seasons with the Lakers, leading the team to five National Basketball Association championships and winning three most valuable player awards.

Lakers team physician Dr. Michael Mellman said Johnson contracted the virus through heterosexual sex.

As the state's only HIV care coordinator in the region, Smith serves as both a care coordinator and counselor. She currently has 35 patients ranging in age, sex, and heterosexual or homosexual preference either with HIV or AIDS, she said.

From October 1987 until the end of August, 16 HIV cases had been reported in Cape Girardeau County, said Kathy Bonney, public information specialist with the Missouri Department of Health's Bureau of AIDS Prevention in Jefferson City. The number of AIDS cases reported in the county from 1982 to the end of August was 15, she said.

Information from the Department of Health shows that a seven-county area including Cape Girardeau had a cumulative total of 34 HIV cases and 29 AIDS cases through Sept. 30. The area includes the counties of Perry, Bollinger, Ste. Genevieve, St. Francois, Iron, and Madison.

In both the Cape Girardeau County and seven-county area figures, it is unclear whether any of the HIV and AIDS numbers overlap, Bonney said.

The figures only deal with cases reported to the Department of Health, she said.

"Even in Cape Girardeau County there is going to be a much higher number of people who are HIV positive and not known to us," she said, adding that a person can be infected for eight to 10 years with no visible symptoms or signs before developing AIDS. "We don't want anyone to have a false sense of security because the numbers are not very high."

Johnson, she said, has demonstrated that AIDS is a disease that "can reach anybody."

Not only does Smith hope Johnson can serve as a positive example for HIV patients, she also hopes he can bring the area and nation to be more supportive and tolerant of people with HIV infections.

"I hope that might influence employers who might learn that their employees are HIV positive," she said. "It might promote more of a tolerance."

Also, people will be more prone now to question whether they are doing anything that could cause them to become HIV-infected, said Smith.

She said the AIDS virus is estimated to have infected 1-1.5 million U.S. residents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In Missouri, as of September, reported AIDS cases came to about 2,360, while reported AIDS deaths totaled 1,305, the Department of Health's figures show.

Smith said she hopes the heightened concern of HIV doesn't fade out. "I hope people stay concerned, and I hope Magic Johnson stays in the news and talking about his condition."

The best way to keep the awareness up, she said, is with children and teens who are growing up and becoming sexually active. When a child questions what's wrong with Johnson, she said, it would be a good opportunity to discuss both the ways people can and cannot get AIDS.

But Smith said she hopes the media doesn't just focus on Magic Johnson as the great NBA star who has HIV. Instead, she said, she hopes the media will portray him as more of a normal person "who's infected with HIV, who's living with it." That way, she said, people can relate to him better.

"I think all of us need to be able to relate to him so we can learn something; so we can avoid HIV."