ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512030019
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
ON THE EVE OF WORLD AIDS DAY and with the help of a man living with the disease, Lee Wonson conveyed the message that AIDS neither discriminates nor knows any limits.
"Someone in this auditorium has AIDS. Can you pick that person out?" public health nurse Lee Wonson asked the parent-teacher-student association meeting at Roanoke's Patrick Henry High School.
Some in the audience looked around, but all they saw was a small group of people of various ethnic backgrounds, ages and fashions. They saw people who looked like students and parents and teachers, which was Wonson's point.
Then she invited Eric to the microphone.
Wonson has been the HIV/AIDS coordinator for the Roanoke and Alleghany health departments since 1989. The first year she was in the job, she had 36 patients. By now, Wonson has seen more than 700 men, women, teens and children as young as 7 who have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Eric is one of them.
The 25-year-old Roanoke man wore blue jeans and a multicolor shirt and had his hair trimmed in a short preppy style.
He is a Virginia Western Community College graduate who could satisfy the cliche "looks healthy as a horse." But his "good to be here" opening meant more than the usual prelude to a talk.
He was glad to still be alive, he said.
Eric was diagnosed with the AIDS virus in 1992. To him, AIDS is the "small monster" in his system that has given him a greater appreciation of life at the same time it assures that he won't have a very long one.
Right now, he is healthy, although he takes 15 to 20 pills a day to help him stay that way. A few months ago, he was in the hospital for eight days battling a severe infection.
Wonson and Eric came to Patrick Henry on Thursday night, on the eve of World AIDS Day, to talk about choices and how things can go crazy when people make the wrong ones.
Young people most of all need to get that message, Wonson said.
This year, 35 Roanoke Valley residents have died of AIDS. It is the leading cause of death nationally for people ages 25-44.
Sometimes students ask if there is anyone now at Patrick Henry who has AIDS, Wonson said.
"I like to tell them that the only way to know for sure is to come back for your 10th reunion and see who isn't here."
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Duke Maberry, with his daughterby CNBBarbara Maberry pushing, leads a parade in honor of World AIDS Day
across Second Street Southwest on Friday. color.