By Barrett Newkirk, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON — It was only four years ago that Brad Lawson ingested 18 pills a day to help his body fight off the weakening effects of HIV.
Now his daily pill count is down to three.
But better treatments for people infected by the virus that causes AIDS doesn’t mean Lawson, 45, is content with the care available to him and others with the disease.
His medicines mean he can’t clear employer drug screenings, and bills have ruined his credit. Other than Medicare and Medicaid payments, Lawson says, he can’t quality for disability.
“My privacy, my confidentiality, that’s gone the minute I apply for a job,” he says.
Lawson, an energetic talker with a slight Texas drawl he picked up while living in Dallas, returned to Anderson in 1994. He will participate in the annual World AIDS Day service Monday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
He has been HIV-positive since 1987 when he was 24 years old. He and his HIV-negative partner, Doug, have been together for 16 years.
An activist for more than 20 years, Lawson says he was speaking out in the 1980s trying to get AIDS awareness campaigns off the ground. Today, he sees billboards in Anderson encouraging drivers to have an AIDS test and wonders why those signs didn’t go up sooner.
“I think we could have done a hard sell on a lot of things a long time ago,” he says.
Lawson’s current fight is better health care for people with HIV and better understanding of the disease as a disability. For four years, he has campaigned to have an HIV-positive representative rejoin the Governor’s Planning Counsel for People with Disabilities, a group that advises the state on funding issues for disability services.
Lawson says federal medical assistance wasn’t designed for people like him, people who may live for decades with a disease. He agrees that his health problems make him “a drain on society,” but he says the government must find other solutions and do it fast.
“I think the economic crisis is going to make for a lot of hard choices,” he says. “Too many of us and too little resources. It’s a mathematical certainty that some of us are going to put by the wayside.”
The Madison County Community Health Center reports that the county is home to about 210 people known to have HIV or AIDS.
“I certainly think that’s an under-representation of the total HIV population,” says Dariusz Mydlarz, associate medical director for the Community Health Center. “Unfortunately, a lot of people have it and don’t know it.”
One goal of World AIDS Day, he explains, is to raise awareness of HIV testing and treatment option with the hope that more people will be tested.
At the clinic, Mydlarz primarily serves low-income, uninsured HIV patients. Most of them are men, and their numbers increase by a few cases every year.
Besides treatment, the health center also serves an educational mission, Mydlarz says. Even with increased awareness campaigns in the past decade, many people remain uncertain of how HIV is transmitted, who it affects and how the disease is treated.
“For most people, this is a homosexual disease,” Mydlarz says. “The truth is it affects everyone regardless of race, age or social standing.”
Mydlarz will be the keynote speaker at Monday’s World AIDS Day service. He plans to speak about programs available locally and the importance of routine HIV testing.
Lawson will contribute a reading from the Bible as part of the service. For him, the prayer service is equally about looking to the future of AIDS and remembering its history.
“Of course awareness is at the top,” he says, “but at the same time, it’s honoring those people who have passed.”
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If you go...
What: World AIDS Day Community Prayer Service
When: Monday, noon
Where: St. Mary’s Catholic Church, corner of 11th and Fletcher streets, Anderson
The service includes songs, prayers, scripture readings and a talk by Dariusz Mydlarz of the Madison County Community Health Center.
