Latinas with HIV discuss disease
Katie O'Connell / Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/9/07 Section: Page One
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Jacqueline Allen found out she was HIV positive at age 22.
Now as a peer counselor and program coordinator with the New Jersey Women and AIDS Network, Allen said she has experienced the stigma of people thinking they could catch the disease just by being in her presence.
Allen was one of four women, and one of two who are HIV positive, who spoke of living with and working in the field of HIV/AIDS, the stigmas associated with the disease and what should be done to prevent infection at the National Latina Health Network's "A Discussion on Women and HIV/AIDS in the 21st Century" last week.
"We don't see the reality as much as we should- hear people that speak about it, their experiences," said panelist Consuelo Bonillas, an assistant professor in the department of health education at Kean University.
Nancy Soto, advisor to the department of Health Office of Women's Health on HIV/AIDS, said when people hear a person is HIV positive, they cannot help but wonder how that person got infected and think somehow that person is at fault.
Patricia Barahona, a Douglass College alumna and public education coordinator for the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said there is also a stigma associated with particular demographics being more at risk for HIV infection.
"I do think people see it as a heterosexual disease and a gay male disease," Barahona said.
The lesbian community is not as encouraged to get tested as the gay male and heterosexual communities are, even though a person participating in any kind of sexual activity is at risk, Barahona said.
"One of the things we can do to change the stigmas about HIV is to start having conversations about it," said event host and Douglass College alumna Patricia Teffenhart-Maikos, program coordinator of the NLHN.
Soto said she believes the stigma will change when society views HIV/AIDS as a disease that [can] affect everyone and when people reconsider their actions.
Now as a peer counselor and program coordinator with the New Jersey Women and AIDS Network, Allen said she has experienced the stigma of people thinking they could catch the disease just by being in her presence.
Allen was one of four women, and one of two who are HIV positive, who spoke of living with and working in the field of HIV/AIDS, the stigmas associated with the disease and what should be done to prevent infection at the National Latina Health Network's "A Discussion on Women and HIV/AIDS in the 21st Century" last week.
"We don't see the reality as much as we should- hear people that speak about it, their experiences," said panelist Consuelo Bonillas, an assistant professor in the department of health education at Kean University.
Nancy Soto, advisor to the department of Health Office of Women's Health on HIV/AIDS, said when people hear a person is HIV positive, they cannot help but wonder how that person got infected and think somehow that person is at fault.
Patricia Barahona, a Douglass College alumna and public education coordinator for the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said there is also a stigma associated with particular demographics being more at risk for HIV infection.
"I do think people see it as a heterosexual disease and a gay male disease," Barahona said.
The lesbian community is not as encouraged to get tested as the gay male and heterosexual communities are, even though a person participating in any kind of sexual activity is at risk, Barahona said.
"One of the things we can do to change the stigmas about HIV is to start having conversations about it," said event host and Douglass College alumna Patricia Teffenhart-Maikos, program coordinator of the NLHN.
Soto said she believes the stigma will change when society views HIV/AIDS as a disease that [can] affect everyone and when people reconsider their actions.