On the AIDS front

Dr. Valerie Stone is no stranger to the devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community. In fact, it has been her life’s work to study the trend of the virus and provide culturally sensitive treatment to those afflicted.

Dr. Stone, who is originally from New Jersey, attended college in the hopes of becoming a chemical engineer. It was then that she found out about HIV and became intrigued with finding a way to curb the epidemic.

After finishing her undergraduate degree, Dr. Stone enrolled at Yale Medical School. Then, from 1988 to 1994, Dr. Stone was an infectious disease fellow at Boston University Medical Center, where she really learned how greatly the community was affected by the virus.

“It was a very overwhelming time with regards to HIV,” recalls Dr. Stone. “Those were years in which a tremendous number of people died from the virus. I was close to burnout with the work.”

Despite the pressure, Dr. Stone continued to work with people suffering from HIV/AIDS and these days, she is even busier. She is the associate chief of the general medicine unit, director of the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program and medical director of the Women’s HIV/AIDS Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. As a member of the AIDS Action Committee’s board of directors, Dr. Stone is working to prevent the spread of the disease and educate the community about the virus and its transmission.

With over 20 years of experience in dealing with the HIV virus and providing care for patients, Dr. Stone is a veritable expert on the disease, specifically in regards to her focus on women of color.

Black women represent 67 percent of all women living with HIV. According to Dr. Stone, there are a number of reasons why infection rates among black women are proportionally higher when compared to women of other races.

A majority of all black women infected with HIV were exposed to the virus through heterosexual sex, with the second most common mode of transmission being IV drug use. In general, heterosexuals are still hesitant about using condoms, despite the many public service announcements and education campaigns that warn people about the risk of unprotected sex. “For black people, the usage of condoms is even lower,” she says.

Dr. Stone makes the point that although the epidemic is devastating for black women, the rates of infection for black men are still noticeably higher. The annual death rate for black men as a result of HIV/AIDS is about 36 per 100,000, and is about 14 per 100,000 for black women.

“Factors such as inequality, poverty, lack of education and high rates of incarceration among black men are all part of why infection rates are already high and continuing to increase in the black community,” she explains.

Through her research and patient care, Dr. Stone is helping to reduce the stigma, miseducation and trauma associated with the virus and finds this to be the most rewarding aspect of her work.

“With medicine, it’s easy to help [people infected with HIV] not die,” explains Dr. Stone. “What’s more complicated is to help them to feel valued as normal people even though they have HIV.”

To read related story, “Twenty-five years later, HIV/AIDS rages on,” click here.