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don't have HIV, but they have some type of STD. WHY IS TREATMENT OF HIV COST EFFECTIVE AS WELL AS PRUDENT PUBLIC SAFETY? DR. HAROLD KATNER: Here's an example. Without medication, the risk of a mother transmitting HIV to her baby is 1 in 4. With medication it drops to 0. Out of around 400 pregnancies since 1998, two women in Middle Georgia tested positive due to not taking medication properly. Through this clinic, 100 babies have avoided getting perinatal transmission. It costs at least $1 million for a lifetime of treatment for a baby born with HIV/ AIDS. So that's $100 million in cost avoidance in that clinic alone. We also have a pediatric infectious disease clinic. I work with the high- risk obstetrics clinic to make sure the women are on an appropriate regimen to prevent transmission to the baby, and I follow that infant for 18 months to make sure the baby doesn't have the virus. DEMARCUS BECKHAM: There's no reason this virus should be so rampant. We have the manpower, the medications and to some degree, the funding. I don't understand why local school systems aren't investing in this education. The outreach services in our 13-county area do our best to provide the range of services needed to prevent and reduce the virus. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE CAN LIVE A FULL, RICH PRODUCTIVE LIFE WITH HIV/AIDS, IF THEY STAY ON THEIR MEDICATION? DALE WRIGLEY: They truly can. Because we can put someone on medication right away, within seven to 10 days we can reevaluate and Georgia Grown, Organic and Artisan Goods Featuring Rocking Chair Ranch Cattle Grass Fed Beef 2381 Ingleside Avenue | Macon, GA 31204| 478.254.8722 probably get them to viral suppression in weeks, if not days. DR. HAROLD KATNER: I have a "70s and 80s Club," people who have had HIV/AIDS for 20-30 years who faithfully take their meds and are doing fine. They're going to die of old age, not of old AIDS. DEMARCUS BECKHAM: I'm an advocate, a black LGBT individual, but not positive. I look at the numbers and think, that could have been me. But, I'm educated and have the means and power to help and protect. It's important to take care of each other. I can't watch another brother or sister pass away when HIV is so treatable and manageable. I listen to people who lived through the '80s and '90s and lost people they loved. It took people who weren't part of the LGBT community or minorities to contract the virus to make progress. 88 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021