Online project aims to stop spread of HIV.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Oregonians Jeffery, Jerry, Chris and John are HIV-positive men who will soon be sharing their stories - and their intent to help stop the spread of the disease - in a statewide marketing campaign.

The Web-based campaign, called HIV Stops With Me, will go live Sunday at hivstopswithme.org. It's an outgrowth of a campaign that began in San Francisco in 2000 and is now operating in four other cities.

The goal of the campaign is to reinforce safer behaviors among HIV-positive men to reduce the spread of the disease - through the voices of real people with the disease. The idea is to reduce the stigma associated with HIV and to acknowledge the powerful role that people who have tested positive have in ending the epidemic.

`It takes enormous courage to stand up publicly and say, `I have HIV and I'm not going to infect anyone new,' ' said Mitch Zahn, HIV prevention manager in the state Department of Human Services. "The power of this campaign is that it features Oregonians speaking out to others who are infected about how they can stop this."

Four volunteers will have their stories on the Web site. Jeffrey is a bisexual white man; Jerry is black; Chris is a young gay man living in Douglas County; and John is a former methamphetamine addict.

Visitors to the Web site will be able to ask questions of the four and tap into other resources.

The campaign deals directly with sex and condom use, and raises themes such as responsibility, communication and disclosure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is funding the campaign, estimates that one-quarter of the nearly 900,000 Americans who are HIV-positive don't know they have the disease, which can stay dormant for years.

The HIV Stops With Me campaign moves next to Seattle later this month. The campaign has been effective in San Francisco, where it began, said Dr. Steven Tierney, director of HIV prevention for the city Department of Public Health.

"The Internet is the new gay bar," he said. "People go there looking for information and partners and ideas. Having an active campaign that's Web-based really speaks to a whole generation of people for whom the Web is an integral part of their social life."

In recent years, gays in San Francisco and other cities got tired of talking about HIV, and the HIV Stops With Me campaign played an important role in reviving that conversation, Tierney said.