Healthy attitudes best defence against HIV and AIDS - speaker

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To prevent AIDS from becoming the next big killer of Canadian Aboriginals, Natives have to go beyond education and prevent, an AIDS worker says.

"It's true that safer sex will stop the spread of HIV," Linda Day of the B.C. First Nations AIDS Society told the B.. HIV/AIDS conference in Vancouver this month.

"But the unhealthy and destructive behaviors that lead to unprotected sex and careless needle use must also be addressed," she told the plenary on Aboriginal and AIDS.

Day said those behaviors in the Native community stem from generations of alcohol abuse, lack of parenting skills, cycles of sexual abuse, low self-esteem and poverty, which are rooted in forced attendance at residential schools.

"We must acknowledge that we have developed unhealthy coping mechanisms for our pain, and only then will we be addressing the real issues of why awe are at such risk for contracting HIV," she said.

According to the statistics presented by Dr. Dave Martin of the Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centre in B.C., the incidence of HIV is no higher among Natives than for the general population.

Three Natives, one male and two females, tested positive for HIV, for a rate of 0.4 per cent.

"The rate is reasonably low," said Martin, adding that the incidence of hepatitis B for Natives is about double that of non-Natives.

Two delegates challenged the results as too low and Martin explained testing was voluntary, with a co-operation rate of 80 per cent, and done mostly with Natives on reserves.

Testing done in prisons by B.C. Corrections found five HIV-positive Natives, all men, or 622 or 0.8 per cent, he said. But the participation was low.

Martin also told delegates a survey this year of Native youth showed young Native are more than twice as likely as non-Natives to report having injected drugs, at 7.8 per cent to 3.5 per cent, he said.

And in testing done at a clinic on Vancouver's east side, where again it was voluntary and ethnic origins were only guessed at, seven Natives out of 107 tested, tested positive for HIV, for a rate of 6.54 per cent, while 30 of 631 non-Natives (4.75 per cent) tested were affected, he said.

Martin admitted the data is spotty.

"There's room for more investigation and data collection."

But B.C. is ahead of other provinces, said plenary moderator Jay Wortman.

"This is the only part of the country where this testing is being done."

The province is also further ahead of other provinces in educating Natives about HIV and AIDS, through the B.C. AIDS Society, also called Healing Our Spirit.

Executive Director Day told the conference why it's so important Natives have their own programs for prevention and treatment of AIDS, a question she's asked often by non-Natives.

"Our cultures as Aboriginal people are complex and unique. Therefore, the development of solutions to effectively deal with social, political and health issues facing our people must also be unique," she said.

The society arranges educational sessions on reserves throughout the province, and they're booked through March.

Most bands are receptive to the AIDS Society's offer for sessions and take advantage of the $270,000 the federal government has made available for the society's costs, Day said.

"But in the physically isolated areas, a lot of communities are in denial about the dangers of AIDS," said Day. "And they are the ones that need the education the most. But it's not a priority for them to seek the money."

Bands in the interior of B.C. are slow to apply for help, she said.

"First Nations people know that AIDS exists, but they refuse to accept that it exists," Alex Archie, a gay - or "two-spirited" - 28 year old from the Canim Lake Reserve in B.C.'s Interior, said in an interview at the conference.

"The understanding isn't there as much as it is in mainstream society," said Archie, who lives in Penticton while attending a creative writing course at the En'Owkin Instructional Centre.