After two of its members died from AIDS-related illnesses, the Catawba Indian Nation is helping organize the first Indian conference on human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome east of the Mississippi. Organizers expect to attract more than 200 participants from among the 21 federally recognized tribes east of the Mississippi and other unrecognized Southeastern tribes. It's something we want to head off.
Prevention is the main thing.
Danise Simpson, medical records-projects coordinator for Catawba health services, said prevention would be the primary issue at the Myrtle Beach gathering. Other topics will include how Indians cope with AIDS-HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, the role played by alcohol and drug abuse, and physical and spiritual response to illness and death. Simpson and Dixie Gibson, who also works at Catawba health services, spent much of the past year and a half attending American Indian AIDS conferences in the West and talking to Western tribes about how they deal with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Gibson said Western tribes have more experience dealing with AIDS than do Eastern tribes.