San Antonio is bucking the trend when it comes to HIV, and not in a good way, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Metro Health Director Dr. Colleen Bridger says the city is seeing a spike in new HIV cases at a time when cases are down nationwide, and she is meeting with local physicians and health officials in an attempt to reverse that trend.
She says most of the cases are appearing in 'young people,' and she says that is probably because HIV is not the nationwide talking point that it was in the 1980s.
"They didn't grow up in the eighties and they didn't see what AIDS looked like in the beginning," she said. "They see Magic Johnson (who is HIV positive) now and they think everything is fine."
And while Dr. Bridger says major advances in the fight against AIDS have been made in the last several decades, it is wrong for many young people to think it has been 'cured' or is 'no longer a threat.'
"It's not the death sentence that is was in the eighties," she said. "It is a chronic disease, and like any other chronic disease that requires a lot of medical resources and it is disease that requires taking daily medication for the rest of your life."
She says another stereotype that she is trying to cut through is the old claim that AIDS only affects gay men. She says like any other sexually transmitted disease, HIV can affect anybody who is sexually active, and it is also spread by drug use.
So what can be done? Dr. Bridger is suggesting that routine testing for HIV be mandatory for all patients.
She cited one person who went to the doctor with 'flu like symptoms' and, since that person did not fit the stereotypical profile of an HIV patient, HIV was never considered.
"You go to your doctor's office once a year and get a chlolesterol test, that is guard against future chronic diseases," she said. "So let's have people start getting annual HIV tests."