She ran some tests at the clinic; he had full-blown AIDS.
“Most people think they aren’t a candidate for this disease, so they don’t get tested,” St. Paer said. “Contrary to popular belief, HIV/AIDS isn’t a problem that exists only in the gay community.
“Ninety-one percent of those infected are heterosexual, and one-third of new cases are women — and most of these women contract it from straight men.”
Many cases, she said, involve people who wrongly believe that a monogamous relationship exempts them from dangers of the disease.
“People often think they’re safe when they are intimate with only one partner,” she said. “Sadly, we don’t always know what our partner is up to or where they have been.”
The incubation period before the antibodies appear, she said, can last up to six months and often no symptoms occur. Those that do are flu-like, so people usually discount them as anything serious.
“Therefore, a negative HIV result doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the clear. Maybe your partner was tested, but the [disease] hadn’t shown up yet, she said.
She stresses the importance of getting tested annually not only to protect others from contracting it but also to receive medical treatment as early as possible.
“If you find out early and get treatment, you can still live a long, normal life,” she said. “The longer you wait, the more damage is done to your immune system, and the more risk you face of your body resisting the medication.”
Until recently, Laguna Beach was the No. 1 city per capita in the country for HIV (it is now Washington D.C., with a reported rate of one-in-20 affected persons — the same as West Africa), she said.
She’s treated 23 cases at the clinic — as young as age 17.
