Another World AIDS Day comes around, but is the community any wiser?

I spoke yesterday with Audrey Chavez, director of the Bakersfield AIDS Project, about World AIDS Day and where Kern stands in fighting the infectious disease. (Read "Observe World AIDS Day at many local events" in today's Californian.)

One problem is that many residents have the "those people" mentality when it comes to AIDS, as in "It's not me; it's those people."

Residents need to take a look in the mirror and consider their own risk factors, she said. This especially needs to be done on a societal level.

Consider:

• Teen pregnancy. Kern is No. 2 in the state for its percentage of births to teen moms out of all live births, which is 14.2 percent, according to the state Department of Public Health. (No. 1 is Imperial County with 14.3 percent.) Teen birth rates have been falling for the past 10 years, but our rank is nonetheless troublesome. This proves that a lot of Kern teens are having unprotected sex, a risk factor for HIV and AIDS.
  
• Sexually transmitted diseases. Kern is No. 3 in the state for chlamydia in 2006 with 511 per 100,000 residents infected, the state health department reports. It is also No. 3 for gonorrhea with 160 out of 100,000 residents infected.
  
• Drug use. Rural areas in the Central Valley are the source of much of the meth produced in California and seized elsewhere, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

"It's important that we are realistic about our own risks," she said. "There's a reality check that really needs to come into play here."

Of the 1,728 people who have been diagnosed with AIDS in Kern County:

• 681 were men who got it by having sex with infected men,
• 510 got it through injections and intravenous drug use,
  
• 244 were men who had sex with infected men and used drugs,
• 238 got it through heterosexual sexual contact.
  

How big of an issue is HIV and AIDS locally? Do you consider yourself at great risk?

What should be done to change the community's opinion of its risk of AIDS?