THE UNIVERSITY DAIRY KANSAN
NEWS
5A
AIDS
(CONTINUED FROM 4A)
LANEY ALLBRITTEN'S STORY:
Laney Allbritten's future is more hopeful than Gaines' was 15 years ago.
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN
Tami Abondano Gaines of Lawrence was diagnosed with HIV 15 years ago. Now living with AIDS, Gaines ingests around two dozen pills each day to cope with symptoms related to the disease, which range from neuropsyche and thrush to uncontrolled cholesterol and weight fluctuations.
Alllbright contracted HIV from her ex-boyfriend. Rob Richardson They broke up in December 2005 after dating for nearly four years. Alllbright said she loved Richardson.
"It was a conscious decision only in so much that I tried to wrap my mind around the risk that I was taking," she said.
She acknowledges that having unprotected sex and knowing that Richardson was HIV positive was like playing Russian roulette.
Alllbright said the decision was a "tacit agreement." In the back of her mind, she knew her actions were unsafe.
Allblritten said whenever she would bring up the issue of having unprotected sex, Richardson would immediately become angry, which caused a rift in their relationship. She said she had unprotected sex with him because it made him feel more
Treatments
normal, which made her think their relationship was better.
She said she was determined not to let Richardson's HIV positive status prevent them from being a couple.
From 1991 to today, HIV treatment options have expanded from one drug to four classes of antiretroviral drugs approved by the FDA.
"Just because he had HIV, was I not going to love him? Was I going to turn and run in the other direction? I'm not that type of person," Allbrritten said. "I like to take the hard road pretty much as often as possible, so that wasn't going to be a deterrent for me."
1991
1) Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor (NRTI)s – The FDA approved azido-thymidine (AZT), or Retrovir, to treat HIV-positive adults and children 3 months and older in 1987. These drugs block a protein called reverse transcriptase, which is crucial for HIV to replicate.
Today
1) Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)
2) Non-nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) – These drugs also block reverse transcriptase.
3) Protease Inhibitors (PIs)
- These drugs block a different protein, called protease, which HIV also needs to replicate.
4) Fusion Inhibitors - These drugs prevent HIV from entering body cells.
Friends repeatedly told her that someone who truly loved her would not expose her to HIV, but she told them they didn't understand.
"They understood perfectly," she said in hindsight. "I just had denial blinders on."
Allbrittened said her decision was stupid and that no one should risk acquiring HIV and AIDS to have a relationship with someone else.
Being HIV positive has added a huge complication to her relationships, Allbritten said.
"There's a whole element of not knowing if you're going to be accepted — more importantly rejected — at any stage of forming a relationship with somebody," she said. "I've been really lucky to have very educated, knowledgeable partners who didn't turn around and run the other direction."
Emery Emery, Allbritten's boyfriend of one year, has been very supportive. He uses condoms to protect himself from contracting the virus. Emery, 42, said he wasn't worried about getting HIV.
"I didn't bat an eye," he said, referring to when Laney told him she was HIV positive. "It really isn't fearful for me at all."
He had already gone through fears related to HIV and AIDS with a friend who contracted the virus.
Emery said people with AIDS used to be treated like people who had leprosy, and he's been "amazed" how many people responded positively to Allbritton's status. He said he looked forward to going through this with her.
Allibrritt's family has also been supportive. She waited a year to tell her parents and her brother because she didn't want them to worry about her. Her brother, Frank, said he felt "horror" knowing what she had to deal with, but also gratitude, knowing how much new medications could do for her.
"It will always be a definite concern, and we always going to worry about her, but we know how medicine is advancing, and we certainly know how strong she is," he said.
Many people in Allbritten's home-town of Cunningham, a town of about 500 in south-central Kansas, know about her condition. They express their interest and concern to her parents, but Allbritten said when they ask her mom how she is doing, they do so in an excessively sad tone, perhaps unaware of medical advances.
available to HIV patients covers her costs. The money comes mostly from the Ryan White funds, a series of programs distributed throughout the states.
Alllbrann said her medications keep her a functioning member of society. She takes five pills a day. They cost $1,500 a month, but funding
"I owe a great debt of gratitude to those people who went before me and were basically human guinea pigs for all this stuff," she said, referring to people like Gaines who took new, untested medications.
Allbritten said she was "desperate" at first because of side effects during the first two weeks of taking her medications, but she has adjusted to them well since.
The medications are hard on her liver and "rip up" her digestive track, but Allbritten said it is a lesser of two evils situation.
She is bothered most by constant fatigue, which makes it hard for her to manage daily activities. She volunteers at two organizations, Douglas County AIDS Project and the agency ABCs of Adoption Inc. in Oklahoma City. She also works 30 hours a week in computer labs on campus, is a full-time student in classes and is enrolled in a tax preparation course.
"I never feel well rested, and that drives me crazy because I've got such a packed schedule," she said. "To not feel like you're ever on top of sleep no matter how much you get is just the worst."
Allbright drinks several cups of coffee every morning to keep from falling asleep before noon. She didn't drink coffee before.
Still, she considers herself lucky. She has never been hospitalized for her condition or had to miss much school or work. She said her professors, family and boss have shown understanding.
She has experienced only one negative reaction from one friend's roommate, who she said goes "bleach crazy" after she leaves their apartment and does not want her to use their bathroom.
Despite her devastating diagnosis one year ago, Allbrritten remains hopeful.
"I tend to live with no regrets," she said. "Even though I'm in the position that I'm in, I try to make the best of it, and I feel like I do a pretty good job of it."
40 MILLION INFECTED
Laney Albrritten isn't the only one who was exposed to HIV by her ex-boyfriend, Rob Richardson. However, unlike her, the others didn't know he was HIV positive.
Ex-boyfriend faces charges
Richardson received a 32-month prison sentence and 56 months of probation for exposing three women to HIV.
He was convicted of four counts of HIV exposure with three women in October and sentenced on Nov. 22.
Richardson
Richardson also has charges pending against him in Johnson County, Mo., and cases pending against him in Emporia and Kansas City, Kan.
"We have no idea how many more are out there," said Allibritten, who she said knows of one girl who won't come forward for personal reasons. "He got around and that's putting it mildly."
"This is something that is going to go into appeals," he said. Allbritten and Richardson
Albrritten and Richardson dated for almost four years. They
moved to Lawrence from Oklahoma City and lived together here while they dated. Allbrritten said they had fun together.
They broke up in December 2005. In January, Allbritten got a call about the initial charges that had been filed against Richardson.
She learned that he had cheated on her with mutual friends of theirs whom she said he told he was in an open relationship.
"As women have come forward, I'm learning more and more about what was going on behind my back," Allibritten said.
More than 40 million people are infected with AIDS worldwide, including 1.1 million people in the United States, and 5 million new infections in 2005. That number is projected to continue growing. By 2030, AIDS is expected to be the fourth leading cause of death, the Public Library of Science Medicine journal reports.
Although the number of people infected with HIV and AIDS has increased significantly, in the past 15 years, the lives of those infected have improved. Kristin Brumm, director of the Douglas County AIDS Project, said that having AIDS and HIV was no longer necessarily a death sentence.
"We used to see people dying with AIDS," she said. "Now we see people living with AIDS."
- Darla Slipke
Brumm said AIDS had fallen off the radar for some people because people weren't dying from it as rapidly as in the 1980s and 1990s. In Kansas, the average person infected with HIV goes nine years without knowing he
or she is infected, Brumm said.
Jennifer Vandevelde, director of HIV and STD testing for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said medications, client care services and social awareness had all improved.
Thanks to social and medical advancements, life can continue after an HIV diagnosis and the outlook for both Allbritten and Gaines has improved. Allbritten, who received her diagnosis two-and-a-half years ago, will graduate in May with degrees in psychology and anthropology. She looks forward to moving to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend, Emery Gaima, who was once told she wouldn't live to see her younger son turn 5, has survived to see her grandchild, Amaya, start kindergarten.
Kansan staff writer Darla Slipke can be contacted at dslipke@kansan.com.
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Difficult Dialogues at The Commons
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Images. Kwang Ion Park Iron, "Yin and Ying." Museum Purchaser, Friends of the Spencer Museum for Art Fund 2001-025-0026.
Sponsored by The Commons, a joint venture of the Hall Center for the Humanities and the Biodiversity Institute
Co-sponsored by Kansas Public Radio
Knowledge: Faith & Reason Panel Discussion
DECEMBER 7
3:30-5:00 pm • Hall Center Conference Hall
Panelists:
Edward O. Wiley...Professor/Senior Curator, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
**Sue Gambie** ... Kansas State Board of Education
**Scott Jones** ... Bishop of the United Methodist Church, Kansas Area
**Richard Lariviere** ...Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost
**Derek Schmidt** ... Simons Public Humanities Fellow & Majority Leader of the Kansas State Senate
All events are free and open to the public.
No tickets are required. For more information visit
www.halcenter.ku.edu or call 785-864-4798.
Difficult Dialogues at The Commons
Images. Kwang Jun Park, "Tim and Ying" Museum Partnership, Friends of the Spencer Museum of Art Fund 2001-0025-006.
Sponsored by The Commons, a joint venture of the Hall Center for the Humanities and the Biodiversity Institute.
Co-sponsored by Kansas Public Radio
Knowledge: Faith & Reason
Professor of Biology, Lehigh University
Michael Behe
"The Argument for Intelligent Design in Biology"
1:00 pm • Crafton-Preyer Theatre of Murphy Hall
All events are free and open to the public. No tickets are required. For more information visit www.hallcenter.ku.edu or call 785-864-4798.