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Daily Dose: HIV and AIDS Awareness

Aired November 25, 2002 - 11:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A church in Buffalo, New York, is trying to educate its congregation about HIV and AIDS, and the minister used a bit of show-and-tell, literally, during his sermon to make his point.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with details in our "Daily Dose." He actually took an AIDS test in front of his congregation.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right there on the pulpit. Talk about public health education, it doesn't get any better than that. You don't think about church as the place to learn about HIV and AIDS; you think you're going to hear about more spiritual issues.

But this reverend, Darius Prichthen (ph), he said, I know that there are infected people in my pulpits, and I know there are effected people also because all the families around who have to deal with this illness. So he told people you need to go out and get tested, and he got himself tested, and he is part of a larger group of other churches that are trying to do the same thing, trying to get people to go out there and get tested.

LIN: So did he inspire anybody?

COHEN: He did inspire people -- 100 people came up and got tested right after the services, yes, so right there and then, they got tested.

LIN: Who should be tested, Elizabeth? Should everybody get tested?

COHEN: Not necessarily, not everybody needs to get tested. What the general recommendation is people who are at a higher risk get tested, which means people who have unprotected sex and people who share needles, so if you're in that group, you need to get tested.

I think one of the concerns in this community is that there is a lot of teenage sex, and the teenagers are not using condoms, and so they need to get tested and find out if they carry the virus.

LIN: So if your minister is not actually conducting tests at the church, where do you do if you are interested?

COHEN: Well, there are various county public health agencies have them, state health agencies have them. There are actually quite a few places to go get tested for HIV. There are also some home tests out there, one newly approved by the FDA, so you can even test yourself for HIV at home.

LIN: How reliable are these tests?

COHEN: Well, they're pretty reliable. The FDA approved them, so they're pretty reliable. Some people would say, well, gee, you really ought to go out there, and go to a public health clinic and have someone else do it, there's probably less room for error. But the home tests were approved by the FDA.

LIN: What are the chances of a false positive? And is there anything that you can do that you might do to trigger a false positive.

COHEN: There's nothing you can would to trigger it. It's not like eating poppy seeds and testing positive for opium or something -- for drug use or something like that. There always is a chance for a false positive, but it's certainly worth the risk, because if someone' carries HIV, they can then give it to other people.

Now I think it's interesting to note this preacher, you noticed that he was African-American, that HIV has disproportionately affected the African community in a very big way. For example, of the 249 women in Buffalo with HIV, about two-thirds of them are African- America.

LIN: So this is his community, he knew that they needed to hear this message, and he's inspiring other preachers in inner-city areas to also do the same thing.

COHEN: Absolutely. Other preachers will be doing the same thing.

LIN: If you get tested and you are tested positive, obviously, not only that you're going to be obviously more cautious in spreading the virus, but the earlier you get help.

COHEN: The better.

LIN: The better. Absolutely. Greater chance of survival.

COHEN: There are drugs now. Twenty years ago, when there wasn't anything, there are drugs now. One thing you were mentioning about home versus not giving the test at home, one advantage of not doing it at home is that there is counseling right there. So that you're not at home getting a positive result, you're there where they have counselors and a whole infrastructure to help you.

LIN: Right. All right, thanks so much, Elizabeth.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



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Aired November 25, 2002 - 11:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A church in Buffalo, New York, is trying to educate its congregation about HIV and AIDS, and the minister used a bit of show-and-tell, literally, during his sermon to make his point.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with details in our "Daily Dose." He actually took an AIDS test in front of his congregation.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right there on the pulpit. Talk about public health education, it doesn't get any better than that. You don't think about church as the place to learn about HIV and AIDS; you think you're going to hear about more spiritual issues.

But this reverend, Darius Prichthen (ph), he said, I know that there are infected people in my pulpits, and I know there are effected people also because all the families around who have to deal with this illness. So he told people you need to go out and get tested, and he got himself tested, and he is part of a larger group of other churches that are trying to do the same thing, trying to get people to go out there and get tested.

LIN: So did he inspire anybody?

COHEN: He did inspire people -- 100 people came up and got tested right after the services, yes, so right there and then, they got tested.

LIN: Who should be tested, Elizabeth? Should everybody get tested?

COHEN: Not necessarily, not everybody needs to get tested. What the general recommendation is people who are at a higher risk get tested, which means people who have unprotected sex and people who share needles, so if you're in that group, you need to get tested.

I think one of the concerns in this community is that there is a lot of teenage sex, and the teenagers are not using condoms, and so they need to get tested and find out if they carry the virus.

LIN: So if your minister is not actually conducting tests at the church, where do you do if you are interested?

COHEN: Well, there are various county public health agencies have them, state health agencies have them. There are actually quite a few places to go get tested for HIV. There are also some home tests out there, one newly approved by the FDA, so you can even test yourself for HIV at home.

LIN: How reliable are these tests?

COHEN: Well, they're pretty reliable. The FDA approved them, so they're pretty reliable. Some people would say, well, gee, you really ought to go out there, and go to a public health clinic and have someone else do it, there's probably less room for error. But the home tests were approved by the FDA.

LIN: What are the chances of a false positive? And is there anything that you can do that you might do to trigger a false positive.

COHEN: There's nothing you can would to trigger it. It's not like eating poppy seeds and testing positive for opium or something -- for drug use or something like that. There always is a chance for a false positive, but it's certainly worth the risk, because if someone' carries HIV, they can then give it to other people.

Now I think it's interesting to note this preacher, you noticed that he was African-American, that HIV has disproportionately affected the African community in a very big way. For example, of the 249 women in Buffalo with HIV, about two-thirds of them are African- America.

LIN: So this is his community, he knew that they needed to hear this message, and he's inspiring other preachers in inner-city areas to also do the same thing.

COHEN: Absolutely. Other preachers will be doing the same thing.

LIN: If you get tested and you are tested positive, obviously, not only that you're going to be obviously more cautious in spreading the virus, but the earlier you get help.

COHEN: The better.

LIN: The better. Absolutely. Greater chance of survival.

COHEN: There are drugs now. Twenty years ago, when there wasn't anything, there are drugs now. One thing you were mentioning about home versus not giving the test at home, one advantage of not doing it at home is that there is counseling right there. So that you're not at home getting a positive result, you're there where they have counselors and a whole infrastructure to help you.

LIN: Right. All right, thanks so much, Elizabeth.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



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