A Service of The Arrow           Friday December 17, 1999 7:52 PM

By: Frank Janes

ARROW STAFF

Many people gathered Wednesday, Dec. 1, at the Flathead Valley Church of Christ for a candlelight vigil in support of those inflicted with a deadly disease.

“It's a world wide commemoration for AIDS,” says Linda Bodick, ex-president of the Flathead AIDS Council, “for people that are infected or affected by it.”

“The purpose is to promote awareness,” says Bodick, “This year's theme is `AIDS: end the silence. Listen, learn, and live.'”

With people living longer and healthier lives, along with positive medical advancements, AIDS is not as big a mainstream issue as it once was, says Bodick, adding, “Basically we're wanting people to know this is still a problem.”

“We're still expecting 40,000 new HIV infections in this country this year,” says Field Health Officer Bruce Desonia. “If you're looking at that from a percentage standpoint it's not that large, but if you're one of those 40,000, it's definitely a big deal.”

The greatest increase in AIDS cases is among heterosexuals, infecting women more often than men.

In the US there are 722,394 known cases of full blown AIDS, not including carriers of HIV. In Montana there have only been 413 cases of AIDS reported, 227 of those are recorded fatalities. Only 13 new cases of AIDS were reported in 1999. Flathead county itself only has 28 known AIDS cases, with only one new case reported this year. These statistics, however, do not include people who are HIV positive.

Although AIDS is not increasing as dramatically ast it once was in the U.S., the numbers are soaring in locations worldwide. India, Thailand, and Sub-Saharan Africa lead the world in numbers of cases. In certain African countries, one out of four people are infected with HIV.

“The pattern of spread in other countries is primarily sexual spread,” says Desonia. “The basis of the solution is education.”

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