Susan Ahlstrom is director and chief executive officer of HERO, an organization in Baltimore that provides health care, legal advice, substance-abuse counseling and other services to HIV- positive people. On the eve of the organization?s 25th-anniversary gala Friday ? featuring former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders as guest speaker ? Ahlstrom discussed the state of AIDS prevention in Baltimore ? the city with the second-highest rate of new infections in the country.
Why has AIDS been such a stubborn problem in Baltimore?
Drug abuse. One of the primary modes of the transmission for AIDS is intravenous drug use. Dirty needles are one of the worst problems, but substance abuse in general often creates an environment of poor decision-making as well.
If that?s the case, why is it so hard to find funding for programs that provide clean needles to addicts?
I don?t know if it?s our puritan culture, but we have a tough time with the debate over providing clean needles on many levels ? whether it?s the failed war on drugs or other similar issues. Still, the availability of clean needles is something that needs to be discussed continually and something we need to do better.
What?s your greatest obstacle to fighting the disease?
Stigma. Since the origin of the disease is linked with gay white males, I think that it has been very difficult for so many people to discuss it. They like to associate it with one thing and one thing only: sex. “What did you do to contract this disease?” is always the question. Because of that, there is still the sense that people are reluctant to talk about it openly.
