MAP AIDSLine Stories

The following stories describe how people have used the MAP AIDSLine.

A married couple called the MAP AIDSLine with questions regarding the risk of HIV transmission. The wife was HIV-positive and the husband was HIV-negative, but they had always been too afraid to ask detailed questions until that phone call.

I live in Greater Minnesota and I’m restarting a long-time relationship with someone living with HIV. I called the MAP AIDSLine because I needed some basic information about how HIV is transmitted and how I can stay safe.

— Name Withheld

A woman called the MAP AIDSLine to find out about risk. Her male partner told her that he was HIV-positive and then said, “just joking”. She had no money and was frightened of him, as he was forcing her to have unprotected sex in exchange for housing.

I am studying for my teaching certificate and had some of my own questions concerning HIV transmission. I found your site on Yahoo and found it to be very informative and easy to use, full of the right information and resource references. It's the first time that someone could explain to me why the virus is NOT transmitted through saliva!!

Thank you for a great site and keep up the good work!

— Name Withheld

A man called the MAP AIDSLine frantically looking for information on HIV test sites. Although he was married, he acknowledged having sex with men and thought he might be at risk for HIV.

When all I had was a fear of hearing what my status was, the only place I had to turn to when living in Minneapolis in 1999 was the MAP AIDSLine. It gave me the ability to contact someone anonymously and set up an appointment for my test. They were so wonderful, knowledgeable, caring. They helped reassure me everything would be all right. When I started feeling really sick a few days after testing at MAP, they also referred me to a doctor who saw me right away, and they knew he would see me without insurance that in the end saved my life. MAP and the MAP AIDSLine are just a few of the people who were instrumental in saving my life.

— Brent Roelofs

I know how much the MAP AIDSLine helped Brent. Without being able to make that call, Brent may not have survived. He was so ill at that time and needed the direction for testing, doctors, and than all the care provider information that MAP provided him. Thank you and thank you again.

— Paulette Korsmo (Brent’s mother)

The MAP AIDSLine received a call from a married male caller who was having oral sex and other unprotected anonymous, non-penetrative sex with men, but he did not understand the HIV risk from oral sex and other types of unprotected sex.

The CareLine [At HealthPartners] uses the MAP AIDSLine number as a resource for callers. Many of our callers are reluctant to reveal personal information to us, but feel comfortable with the MAP staff so I see this as a very valuable community resource. The closure of the hotline would certainly limit us in being able to offer our callers an anonymous alternative to have questions answered or concerns addressed. Because the CareLine does not have the ongoing and updated community resource information available to them as the MAP hotline does, I think this would negatively impact our members.

— Jennifer Carlson, HealthPartners CareLine

A heterosexual man whose friends “surprised” him with a birthday gift of a prostitute called the MAP AIDSLine. He was uncertain about his risk for HIV and didn’t know where to turn out of embarrassment and shame.

In my experience, the MAP AIDSLine is a key resource tool for HIV service reference. I have given it many times to Clients, especially for those Clients who do not read and write. I have also used it a lot especially when I have challenging referral for services that are not in the resource book.

Recently I used the MAP AIDSLine to successfully coordinate a referral for my client to transfer out of state. My Client is an African born woman who does not read or speak English. She was relocating to the West coast and needed help finding a treatment facility similar to HCMC. I gave her the MAP AIDSLine. She asked me to call for her as she did not speak English, we called and in a moment MAP faxed us pages of the national HIV directory listing the services in the area we requested. We then made contact with the health service department and finally the client was able to choose a hospital that served a diverse population. She left Minneapolis and accessed care successfully in her new community.

Thanks,

— Monica Yugu, Case Manager, HCMC

A rape victim called for information about HIV transmission and testing. She had been tested for a variety of STDs but not for HIV. The MAP AIDSLine connected her with a testing site in her community.

We give out Resource Guides to every new client (who agrees to have it in their possession). As well, we re-issue updates (and sometimes more often if lost) to all clients who want one. Finally, the resource guide is an invaluable tool for case managers and the clinic social service providers. We all carry them in our bags, as well as have a desk copy, as we refer to them numerous times in a week. We would really miss the Resource Guides, should they cease to be!

— Karin Sabey, Hennepin County Medical Center

An employer called looking for a testing referral for an employee who feared that he was HIV-positive. The employer also wanted to know what risk, if any, there was to his business if the employee was indeed HIV-positive.

I had a CADI worker from Hennepin County asking me how she can hook up a client of hers to HIV services. I informed her that she can call the MAP AIDSLine and they will be able to assist her. She stated she would do that.

P.S. I use the Resource guide on a regular basis, which has been extremely helpful for me to do my job in working with the clients.

— Sue Mooney, HCMC - Case Manager

An attorney called on behalf of a client who was incarcerated out of state and who was HIV-positive and needed medications. Without an HIV test the county jail would not prescribe medications, and the jail would not administer a test. The attorney needed assistance finding out about HIV testing options available for his client.

Twelve years ago, as a foster parent and an EMT I was asked to foster an HIV+ child knowing little about HIV except universal precautions. Several calls to the MAP AIDSLine relieved all my concerns, gave me invaluable resources and the facts I needed in order to nurture this child. Without the help and reassurance of the MAP AIDSLine who knows what decision we’d have made about whether to live with a HIV-positive child, who knows where she would be right now, still floating through the system, living in foster homes that wore rubber gloves with any physical contact of her, submerging her in hot water after stripping her at the door when she returned from a visit to her AIDS infected mother? She has been our adopted child for the last ten years; I credit the MAP AIDSLine for helping make that a possibility for her and for us.

— Name Withheld

Last Updated: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
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