Miami Valley HIV - Alex's Story DAYTON, OH (WYSO) - Earlier this year The Center for Disease Control says it underestimated the number of new HIV infections in the United States by as much as 40%. Statistics show that nearly half of all new HIV cases occur among African Americans - And people under 30. As Jerry Kenney reports, the rise in infection rates is a side effect of people living longer with the disease.


(Alex Listing Medicine...)

Standing at the kitchen counter in his small and tidy apartment, Alex Brundrette runs through a list of medicine. It's nothing new to him, but the medicines have changed over the years.

(Alex - I've been taking so many drugs for the last 20-25 years I can't remember what I started with. At one time I was taking 26 pills.)

In the early 80's, Alex left Ohio for what he called "the Dark-Mystery" of New York. There he landed work with Playboy, Women's Wear Daily and other magazines. He waited tables - took acting lessons - even appeared in several commercials.

New York was exciting for Alex, and working in the fashion industry put him in the fastlane. He spent time in Paris and Greece, then made his way back to New York. There he found out a friend of his was diagnosed with HIV. Alex had himself tested soon after - He too had contracted HIV - That was 25 years ago.

Alex says that initially he thought his life was over - Around 1994 he developed full-blown AIDS. But as the virus he carries has developed, so has its treatment.

(Alex.... analogy of swinging from a vine)

(Bill... People are living much longer. )

Bill Hardy is the Executive Director for Aids Resource Center in downtown Dayton.

(Bill - When I started with ARC in 1993 an aids diagnosis carried a life expectancy of 18 months...)

Hardy says with the introduction of protease inhibitors in the mid 1990's, the outlook for people living with HIV and aids changed dramaticly. But he says with longer life expectancies came a distortion in public perception.

(Bill....The downside is, because people are living longer, and the perception is for some people, almost a quater of Americans erroneously think that a cure has been found - high risk behaviors are at an all time high. New infections continue to impact youth and young adults and gay and bi-sexual men. Those trends are national and impacting us here in Dayton as well.)

ARC Dayton is now seeing 20 to 25 new HIV cases a month. Bill Hardy is shocked. He says funding for HIV/Aids prevention is low and high risk groups aren't being reached.

(Bill... Nothing is more complicated than getting people to focus on sexual behaior. Cause what people say they do and what they are is not always what they're doing or should be doing. It's just really complicated stuff. It's 2009 and Magic Johnson looks great. If I get HIV it's just one more pill to take. We are not a socity that focuses on prevention.)

As a result of ARC's advocacy for prevention funding, Montgomery County has increased it's funding for HIV prevention by 13%.

But what about people who have already been infected? Hardy says "research shows, overwhelmingly that more people take HIV tests, not because they've engaged in risky ehavior - but because they are already symptomatic. By the time they begin medical treatment, their immune sytems are severely compromised. It's estimated that 1/4th of people living with HIV don't know they have it.

(Alex - My best friend in New York died and that was rough. My friend in Paris died too...)

Alex Brundrette considers himself lucky. In the 25 years since he was diagnosed with HIV, Alex says he's lead a healthy lifestyle, and the meds he's taken since then are just part of the compromise he's had to make....

(Alex - I had a promiscuous youth and the only way I can describe it is too say that I paid for it dearly... It's just something you get used too, the bridges you have to cross, the vine you have to grab to get you to the next place, so...)

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