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(Tower Street Center) • (810) 855-0364 West Bloomfield • • 5:'•,:...r...*:.N•Mi:M7.•...•X•A*...2":W.W.?:MV.: . . ..ZZOM:- .::%,.• , :,:= 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.