People whose jobs revolve around making life better for those in Houston with HIV/AIDS were reeling this week in response to remarks made by Vice President Dick Cheney during Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate.

As much as anything, AIDS activists say, it was Cheney’s lack of knowledge about the disease that seemed most stunning.

“I think it’s shocking that he didn’t know any more than what he said,” said Ken Malone, executive director of the Assistance Fund in Houston.

Specifically, Malone said, he was surprised by the vice president’s response to a direct question from debate moderator Gwen Ifill.
At one point during the debate, Ifill turned to Cheney and said,

“I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts.”

When Cheney responded, the first sentence out of his mouth was about the AIDS crisis in Africa. He went on to say, “Here in the United States, we’ve made significant progress. I have not heard those numbers with respect to African-American women. I was not aware that it was — that they’re in epidemic there.”

At the Montrose Clinic in Houston, there is not one person on staff who didn’t know exactly what Ifill was talking about.

Clinic Education Director Eric Rowland said anyone at the clinic could have told Ifill that data from the Texas Department of Health indicates that in Harris County, black women are eight times more likely to contract HIV than white or Hispanic women.

Furthermore, he said, black women are infected at a rate of 78 per 100,000.

At the Montrose Clinic, he said, “The rate of infection among African American men and women has been increasing over the past three years. Over the last three or four years, our case load has involved more African American men and women.”

At the same time, Rowland said, funding through the Ryan White Care Act has been flatlined.

“Advocacy groups are pushing very hard to get an increase in funding for the Ryan White Funds,” he said. “At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control are pushing really hard for increased HIV testing.”

The Montrose Clinic recently was awarded funds to perform rapid testing of gay and bisexual men. The problem is, he said, when those new cases are diagnosed, eventually there may not be funds available to help.

Ken Malone suggested that the next time a candidate is asked a question about HIV in a debate, it could be referring to the high infection rate among seniors of all sexes and persuasions.

“Seniors are another fast growing group of people to get infected with HIV,” he said.

Malone said people over 50 who are widowed or divorced are more sexually active than ever before, and they don’t tend to use condoms.

He said women in particular are from a time when condoms were for protection against pregnancy. When women over 50 were first sexually active, he said, AIDS wasn’t on the radar scope.

Rowland said the case load at the Montrose Clinic reflects what Malone mentioned.

“Certainly we’re seeing people who are in their 50s who had no idea they were at risk, and they’re being diagnosed with HIV,” he said.

Edwards not much better
Both Malone and Rowland said they were not completely satisfied with John Edwards’ answer to Ifill’s question, but he at least mentioned that more needs to be done domestically.

“John Edwards did mention to his credit that those programs aren’t fully funded,” Malone said.

Rowland said talk at the Montrose Clinic the day after the debate centered on the fact that Edwards missed an opportunity to speak to the crisis.

`I was not surprised that Cheney evaded the question,” Rowland said. “Edwards had the opportunity to come back, and he totally blew it.”

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