The Edisto Health District is in the fight of its life against HIV/AIDS, and the numbers are increasing in the battle to change risky behaviors and enhance education.

According to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's Quarterly Surveillance Report, through December 2006, the district reported a cumulative total of 1,101 HIV/AIDS cases, with a prevalence rate of 906 cases per 100,000 people. It ranks number one in the state in HIV/AIDS cases.

Bamberg ranks number two in the state in HIV/AIDS incidence, with a prevalence rate of 184 cases per 100,000 people. Orangeburg County ranks number four, with a prevalence rate of 873 cases per 100,000 people. With a prevalence rate of 44 cases per 100,000 people, Calhoun County ranks number 21 in the state.

The numbers are clear, but is the message of prevention?

World AIDS Day will be observed on Saturday, Dec. 1, with the international theme being "Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise," and the national theme "Action Makes a Difference."

Lynda Kettinger, director of the state DHEC's STD/HIV Division, said approximately 900 people are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS each year.

"We encourage public health and private partnerships throughout South Carolina to end the stigma of HIV and promote community support for HIV testing, prevention, care and treatment," Kettinger said.

The Edisto Health District of Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties has a black majority, with DHEC statistics glaringly pointing to the need for them to pay particular attention to issues surrounding the epidemic.

Blacks account for only 30 percent of the state's population but represent 72 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases recently diagnosed in South Carolina. Black men and women have been hardest hit by the epidemic, as they have a case rate almost seven times greater than whites in the state.

Blacks are also disproportionately impacted among the state's population of those newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The state ranks third in the nation for the proportion of black Americans living with AIDS.

Minority AIDS Council President Shirley James, a registered nurse, noted that HIV/AIDS rates are disturbingly rising more among the younger population aged 20-39 in the state. DHEC reports that 9,359 of the 14,120 persons who have been reported living with HIV/AIDS as of December 2006 were among that age group.

"It's just a whole lot of problems that impact their way of thinking and is reflective of their behavior," said James, noting that poverty, unemployment and homelessness are among the barriers that many are facing and in the Edisto health district.

She said three burgeoning intervention programs in the region include: the SISTA program, an intervention program for black women aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior; VOICES, a program through which proper condom use is taught, and Many Men, Many Voices, a group-level intervention program to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among black men who have sex with men.

Reducing the need for costly hospital visits, preventing new HIV cases and keeping individuals working, healthy and off of public assistance programs such as Medicaid are among the benefits of having early access to HIV medication, the state DHEC reports.

Orangeburg is home to a facility that former President Bill Clinton singled out to illustrate the success of funding for AIDS clinics. The Changes Clinic was established in 1991 to provide outpatient treatment and care for people with HIV and AIDS living in Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties.

Willie Simon, an outreach specialist at the clinic, said the message of abstinence is not working on its own.

"I feel it's doing a disservice more than a service, because just talking about abstinence and not giving people options for safer sex and risk reduction is not working," Simon said.

James said the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control recommends that people get an HIV test once a year along with their annual physical as part of the s.jpg to making themselves healthier. She said heterosexual sex is the transmission rate through which HIV/AIDS is spreading the fastest.

For more information about World AIDS day events, including local HIV testing sites, call DHEC's S.C. AIDS/STD Hotline at 1-800-322- AIDS (1-800-322-2437), or visit the DHEC Web site at http://www.scdhec.gov/stdhiv.

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T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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