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BY JOHN COLEMAN
Special to UMConnection

'There is no cure for HIV/AIDS,' said Carmi Washington-Turner, who works for the Maryland AIDS Administration. 'But there are people, especially many young people, who think there is, who think Magic Johnson has a cure for AIDS. That is not true.'

Staff from the AIDS Administration shed powerful light on facts and fiction about HIV/AIDS at a workshop in Baltimore last month, preparing clergy and laity to educate their churches and communities about the disease.

The full-day training event, sponsored by the Baltimore-Washington Conference and hosted by John Wesley UMC, covered prevention methods, transmission of the virus ? primarily through sex and sharing of needles ? and testing and treatment of the HIV infection.

In 2003, the latest year for which national statistics are available, the Baltimore metropolitan area had the fifth highest rate of reported AIDS cases in the nation, with 39.3 cases per 100,000 people, according to the AIDS Administration. Washington, D.C., was ninth, with 33.3 cases per 100,000 people.

There were more than 13,900 Baltimore city residents living with HIV/AIDS in mid-2004; 89 percent of them were African-American.

Averaging more than 660 deaths a year from AIDS, Maryland has the third highest rate of reported cases among states. And AIDS is Maryland?s leading cause of death among African Americans, ages 25-44.

Such grave statistics concerned three conference groups in particular who worked together to provide the training: the HIV/AIDS Committee, the Committee on Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century and Black Methodists for Church Renewal.

'We hope to replicate this training in D.C. and the Western region of the conference next year,' said conference associate council director Sandy Ferguson.

The Maryland AIDS Administration wants to enlist churches across the state to help generate more awareness and concern about the disease, recognizing that greater awareness may improve prevention and community response, according to Pearl Whitehurst, coordinator of the administration?s new faith-based community outreach program. Whitehurst, who also taught at the workshop, met recently with a group of Baltimore church leaders.

Both speakers also taught attendees to communicate their new insights about HIV/AIDS effectively to specific audiences. They discussed typical attitudes and behaviors related to the disease and its victims, often the result of fears, ignorance and misunderstanding.

'The church ? not schools or community associations, but the church ? is the only place where beliefs about what?s right and wrong can be taught in a religious, spiritual context based on key principles of one?s faith,' said Washington-Turner. 'So that?s an important way to reach people and change behaviors.'

Several participants cited efforts underway in their churches to respond to the problem.

Mt. Winans UMC in Baltimore offers HIV testing to community residents twice a year, reported Valerie Hall Butler, administrative aide. 'But we have to use incentives ? giving away movie theater passes, food and store vouchers ? to get people to respond,' she said.

Mt. Winans also sponsors a prevention program for youth and a 24-hour telephone hotline with referrals for people seeking treatment for drug addiction.

Carrol Hicks, a member of Asbury-Town Neck UMC in Annapolis, cited quarterly AIDS education seminars sponsored by the Annapolis District AIDS Task Force, which he chairs. The task force, which sent five members to the training, also regularly sends information to churches and promotes several community programs that address AIDS and related concerns.

'We do a lot of outreach in our community,' said Carol Young of St. Matthews UMC in Baltimore, 'but we need to do more to inform and sensitize our church members, especially older ones. ? Some are afraid they might catch something if they get close to young people. Now I feel equipped to tell them what I already knew: that they won?t catch AIDS that way.'

Young, who worked for the Social Security Administration, also reported that 17 percent of new AIDS cases are among people aged 55 and older. She said she has seen more older men applying for medical disability funds because they have developed AIDS.

'This was a day to help churches break through their silence, denial and neglect about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in their communities,' said Sumayya Coleman, a member of the conference HIV/AIDS Committee who helped organize the event. 'The training helped us find ways to approach our fellow members and those in the community who are living and dying with this disease.'

MAKE THE CONNECTION

Pearl Whitehurst, AIDS Administration Faith-Based Program manager, can be reached at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 500 N. Calvert St., 5th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202. E-mail: .md.us or telephone: (410) 767-8861. For a copy of the Maryland 2004 HIV/AIDS Annual Report, call (800) 358-9001 or (410) 767-5061, or visit the agency Web site at www.dhmh.state.md.us/AIDS/.