Veteran AIDS worker was inspired by brother’s death.

When Juan Casuso found out that his brother Gabriel had AIDS twenty one years ago he wanted to learn as much as he could about the disease. Juan looked up articles and spoke with the nurse who came to visit Gabriel almost every day. “She told us the things we needed to know, like what precautions to take,” said Casuso

Gabriel was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and he participated in a clinical trial for AZT, a drug that was being introduced at the time to treat AIDS. Gabriel did not respond well to the drug, he became anemic and there was not much that could be done for him. “Eventually he came home so we could make him comfortable,” said Juan Casuso.


Casuso has worked at the University of Miami’s AIDS Clinical Research Unit (ACRU) for twenty years now, where he is the screening director. He decided to get into the field of AIDS research after his brother died, because he wanted to learn more about the disease and see if he could help.

Casuso reviews patients medical history and ascertains if they qualify for clinical trials at the research unit. He also sits down with the patients and talks to them about the disease. “The main thing is to give them information; there are still a lot of misconceptions out there,” said Casuso.

Patients at the ACRU undergo clinical trials for medications yet to be approved by the FDA or for trials involving new uses for existing approved drugs. They also receive medication while they are undergoing the trials. “For the patients its like a regular trip to the doctor’s office, the nurses attend to them and the doctor’s come to see them.”

Casuso, typically sees about three people per day for screening. He sees an ethnic mix of applicants. “I see people of all different races, ages, some older, some younger. Miami is an ethnically diverse place, so you get ethnically diverse patients.”

“When I started here, this was the only place in Florida where people could go for treatment.” Now, there are a lot resources for HIV/AIDS.”
Casuso also got involved by going out to the community and trying to educate people about AIDS.

Juan believes that the tide in the fight against AIDS started to turn when it became apparent to politicians that the disease was affecting the general population and not just minorities.
“There was a lot of misinformation, and people were not very receptive.” “I remember at the time that there was a big debate in the country about using the word ‘condom’ on television. You couldn’t say it. People didn’t want to talk about AIDS”.
As AIDS began to infect different and larger populations, more people where aware of the disease and perhaps knew someone who had it. “They were maybe not infected but they were affected by it,” said Casuso.

Even with today’s resources Casuso still witnesses a lot of public ignorance about AIDS.
“People tend to think that because there are drugs to treat the disease that they’ll be able to live with AIDS and be fine. But, there are side effects to the drugs and sometimes they don’t respond.”
“I have young people coming In often who are newly diagnosed, we aren’t doing enough to educate the public about prevention.” said Casuso.

AIDS in South FL.

As far as I have learned, South Florida, particularly Miami, was one of the first places to see a lot of patients with HIV/AIDS. Back in the late seventies and early eighties, doctors began to see many cases involving people from Miami's Haitian Community. This lead to an unfair stigma about Haitians being the ones who brought AIDS to the United States.
From what I understand Miami-Dade county has a very high rate of HIV/AIDS patients. I think combating the disease in Miami could be pretty difficult considering that we have a large population of immigrants down here who are not being reached out to. They may not have received much education about AIDS in their home countries. Not everyone took Health class in high school.
I remember hearing all about AIDS in school, and being told the measures to prevent infection. I take them seriously.
I think the issue of AIDS is largely ignored by the media in South Florida. I can't recall seeing any major stories done about AIDS in South Florida by any of the major news outlets down here. I think in general HIV/AIDS has been taken out of the national conversation. I remember in the 90'S it was a major issue. Now it seems the media have put off AIDS to talk about terrorism and the failing economy.
I think AIDS is a very relevant issue. I did a report on HIV/AIDS for a journalism class. I remember seeing data that suggest there are high rates of infection in the poor areas of the county. I don't hear much from our local leaders about what they are doing to combat this problem.
I think AIDS needs to be back in the news and the media need to press the leaders on why they don't seem to be doing anything about it. In poor areas lack of education and access to information can seriously up a person's risks of getting the disease.
I personally don't know where any AIDS clinics are in the areas. I haven't the vaguest clue about what the state and county governments spend on AIDS treatments. Miami has a state of the art eye care center, Bascom Palmer, but as far as I know no state of the art AIDS treatment or research center.
All I can say is that I am not very well informed on AIDS. I don't know the challenges facing doctors who treat AIDS patients. I've never spoken to any. I don't know the challenges faced by AIDS patients in South FL, I've never talked to anyone who had AIDS or who I knew to have AIDS.
I think the public in South FL, needs to be better informed on where they can get tested for free, and where they can seek help if they do have HIV/AIDS. I think I need to learn a lot more about it.