Student, born with HIV, gives talk

By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter

When Kalee Garland was 7 years old, her teacher called Child Protective Services because she saw Garland covered in bruises and feared the worst.

But the worst was not exactly what her teacher had expected. Garland was not being hurt by her mother. She was battling AIDS.

The diagnosis was unexpected to everyone, especially Garland’s mother, who until that moment hadn’t realized that she had been infected with HIV by a boyfriend long before Garland was born.

Garland was born with the virus, and by age 7 she had full-blown AIDS — and a very bleak prognosis. Doctors didn’t expect her to live longer than six months.

But now, at age 21, Garland is a university student in San Diego with a fiancé and exciting plans for her future. For the past week, she’s been traveling around Oregon with her friend, Bob Bowers of HIVictorious, talking about her life with AIDS to school kids, community groups and whoever else will listen.

Bowers is the nephew of Corvallis resident David Williams. The Corvallis Elks, of which Williams is a member, has hosted Bowers and Garland’s appearances. They will speak at area high schools, Community Outreach Inc. and other locations, including a keynote address at Linn Benton Community College. It is scheduled for Thursday as part of International World AIDS Day.

Garland first met Bowers when she was attending Camp Heartland, a camp for children and teens affected by HIV.

“I saw Bob and totally connected with him ... He had tattoos, and he reminded me of Henry Rollins,” she said, referring to the famed — and heavily inked — author and former lead singer of the punk group Black Flag.

When Bowers started talking about his own experiences as an HIV-positive adult, he also shared his mission through HIVictorious, which is to educate and demystify the world of AIDS/HIV. He asked Garland if she might be interested in traveling to Oregon in the fall to help him share that message.

“I jumped at the chance,” Garland said. She’s already done multiple presentations on AIDS through the University of California at San Diego, and feels it’s important to help people understand the truth about HIV.

“People with HIV and AIDS are just human,” she said. “We’re not running around infecting people. You have to engage in a behavior that’s high risk to contract it.”

Garland survived her early years with AIDS by taking a combination of highly toxic AIDS medications, but by the age of 10, she began refusing treatment because the side effects were too great. For a time, she participated in an experimental treatment where she was infused with a donor’s white blood cells, but the experiment was discontinued, so throughout her teen years, Garland went untreated.

That turned out to be a mistake. Garland contracted meningitis four times between the ages of 16 and 18, and the final time, it was so severe that doctors had to implant a shunt through her head that drained into her stomach. She decided it was time to get back on her medications.

Today, her viral load is now undetectable, and her T-cell count is at 80, where it used to be in the teens. T-cells are a kind of white blood cell that help fight off illness. A healthy human usually has a count of 600 to 1,200.

She doesn’t know what the future holds, but says any prognosis she receives will be taken with a dash of skepticism. After all, doctors didn’t expect her to survive past age 8 anyway.

And while she wants to make sure other young people know that people with AIDS and HIV shouldn’t be feared, she wants to impress upon them that the disease itself is nothing to take casually.

“You’re not invincible,” she said.

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World Aids Day focuses on what you can do to combat the disease Alex Paul/Democrat-Herald Kalee Garland, who has was born with HIV/AIDS, and Bob Bowers, who has lived with the disease for 23 years, spoke Thursday at Linn-Benton Community College during World Aids Day. At first glance, dressed in black, with tattoos running up and down both arms, and a skull-like silver belt buckle, Bob Bowers is an imposing figure. That is until he starts to to talk about living with HIV/AIDS for 23 years. Tears start flowing and the tough guy persona melts away. The tears, he says, aren’t about his life. They are for the millions of people around the world who have died from the disease or its complications. Many of them were his friends. Thursday, Bowers and Kalee Garland, 21, who was born with HIV which turned into “full blown AIDS” when she was just 7 years old, spoke at Linn-Benton Community College during World AIDS day. Their visit was sponsored by the college’s Student Life and Leadership office. “We have lost 25 million brothers and sisters so far,” Bowers said. “Yet, this is a preventable disease.” An Oregon native, Bowers said AIDS is an extension of social issues including extreme poverty, racism, and physical and mental abuse. Bowers lost his mother when he was 10 and never knew a real father figure. He went looking for love and often in the wrong places. At 19, he was living a fast life of drugs and unprotected sex in Los Angeles. At 21, he was diagnosed with what was then called Gay Related Immune Deficiency. He said AIDS no longer garners front page headlines because people believe there are “drug cocktails” that have defeated the disease. “Those cocktails are actually chemotherapeutic medications,” Bowers said. “They are powerful, they make you sick. It isn’t pleasant and they cost thousands of dollars per month.” They also don’t work for everyone with AIDS. Bowers said HIV/AIDs does not discriminate by social class. It is not a homosexual disease. “It’s not who you are, it’s what you do,” Bowers said. “If you want to shoot dope, don’t share needles. If you want to have sex, use a condom.” Garland is a San Diego, Calif. native who learned about her disease after a teacher thought she had been abused at home. Bruises were outward signs of her disease. “I love my life. I was supposed to die at age 7,” Garland said. “I am not a survivor; I am a fighter.” Garland has endured the inability to fight off infections caused by the disease, including battling meningitis four times and having 68 spinal taps during her many stays in hospitals. She has also suffered from the ignorance of others, including teachers, when it comes to HIV/AIDS. Garland is engaged to be married and says her fiance does not have HIV/AIDS. Bowers was married for 11 years and his wife did not have HIV/AIDS, nor does she now. He has been in a 3-year relationship with a woman who does not have HIV/AIDS. Protection, Bowers and Garland agree, is mandatory, not just because of AIDS, but also to protect yourself from more than two dozen sexually transmitted diseases. The two encouraged the audience to be involved by becoming educated, getting tested, volunteering with programs such as the Valley Aids Information Network and supporting legislation to find a cure for the disease. To learn more about AIDS/HIV, visit Bowers’ website, www.hivictorious.org Locally, visit the Valley Aids Information Network at www.valleyaidsinfo.org or call the Linn County Health Department at 967-3888. By Alex Paul, Albany Democrat-Herald. *************