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FIRST PERSON page 65
from the East Coast, West Coast,
from the North or South.
It doesn't matter whether you
are white or black. AIDS hap-
pens. Sometimes it happens to
people, like Ms. Boccomino, who
least expect it.
hen the media first
started reporting about
AIDS, I remember
thinking to myself,
`Thank God I'm mai lied. I don't
have to worry about this disease.'
I didn't know at the time that I
had already been infected," Ms.
Boccomino says.
At Temple Israel, she warned
audience members about ways
to contract HIV:
1. Through sex: vaginal, anal
and oral.
2. Through blood to blood con-
tact: steroid use, IV-drug use,
blood transfusions, sharing razor
blades, blood "brothering" and
"sistering," sharing toothbrush-
es, ear piercing, tattooing and
other related activities.
"All the facts I know today
were available in 1987," Ms. Boc-
comino says. "I wish, back in
1987, they would have spread the
word on AIDS as thoroughly as
they're talking about the O.J.
Simpson trial today."
Ms. Boccomino also informed
the crowd at Temple Israel about
ways people do not contract HIV:
shaking hands, kissing, hugging,
wiping a tear away from some-
one's eyes. These are activities
she and her family members en-
gage in regularly. Still, Ms. Boc-
comino's husband and Tony
remain uninfected.
Kissing, for example. AIDS
specialists say kissing isn't dan-
gerous unless two people have
bloody mouth sores. Saliva car-
ries the HIV virus, but it has a
concentration too low to spread
the infection.
"You would have to kiss some-
one who gives you a quart of sali-
va at one time," Ms. Boccomino
says. "People get so irrational in
their fears that they forget about
the real ways you get the disease.
I know people who are afraid to
shake my hand, but they'll have
sex without a condom."
Drugs and alcohol worsen peo-
ple's judgement, she adds.
After 10 years of marriage, Ms.
Boccomino and her husband still
have sex; he uses a condom. La-
tex condoms are 99 percent ef-
fective, she says, but warns the
statistic only applies when they
are stored, used and discarded
correctly.
The withdrawal method
doesn't work, she says, and get
rid of the petroleum jelly. The
only lubricants that should be
used with the condoms are the
water-based type, like KY.
Safe sex is a tall order for ex-
perienced adults, and it's even
more challenging for high-school-
ers. "I believe in abstinence," Ms.
Boccomino says. "But I'm not
here to tell people what to do. I
just want to give them informa-
tion to protect themselves."
Women are at the highest risk
of getting AIDS because their
vaginal membranes are thin. The
virus can pass right through.
Women also might be unaware
of cuts in their vagina, making
them extra vulnerable to the dis-
ease.
Women, says Ms. Boccomino,
are contracting AIDS at a faster
rate than homosexuals. It's a fact
attributable to a lack of educa-
tion and denial. Too few non-ad-
dict, non-gay, non-promiscuous
people think it'll happen to them.
"At group meetings, I don't see
drug users. I don't see prostitutes.
I see women like me. Women
who got infected by a husband or
a boyfriend in college," she says.
Infected women, when preg-
nant, pass the virus to the fetus
in 40 percent of the cases.
Men also should fear the risk,
she says. Take former basketball
great Magic Johnson, who con-
tracted the virus through sex
with women.
"I know people
who are afraid to
shake my hand,
but they'll have sex
without a condom."
— Tammy Boccomino
Ms. Boccomino encouraged au-
dience members to get tested
anonymously at their Depart-
ment of Public Health office. The
test won't show up on health
records (as it would if done at a
doctor's office). For teen-agers,
there's no parental consent nec-
essary.
"If the test comes back nega-
tive at six months, I would thank
God I was healthy and never put
myself at risk again," Ms. Boc-
comino told the crowd.
If the test comes back positive,
individuals should access help
through counseling programs
(see chart).
Ms. Boccomino encouraged on-
going education in "every church,
synagogUe, temple, school and
business, no matter how small.
There's always new information
and people always forget."
AIDS cases are increasing
fastest among teen-agers. Says
Ms. Boccomino, "Many teens tell
me, 'So what if I get infected? I'm
going to die sometime anyway."
AIDS isn't just a matter of life
and death, she reminds them.
Rather, it involves a struggle that
often lasts 10 years. Her son,
Michael, is still living, but "it's
a roller-coaster ride." Her first
husband infected his second wife
and died three years ago with
cancerous lesions all over his
body. His second wife died in
1993.