HIV+ 2 YEAR OLD BANNER FROM POOL AT WALES WEST LIGHT RAILWAY & RV RESORT

HIV-Positive Toddler Banned From Pool ABC News Posted: 2007-07-09 07:20:50 Filed Under: Health, Nation (click link for photogallery) http://news.aol.com/story/_a/hiv-positive-toddler-banned-from-pool/20070708152909990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001#cmntbgn (July 8) - A couple says their vacation was ruined when an RV park owner told them they weren't welcome after discovering their 2-year-old foster son had the HIV virus. The Glovers said Caleb is a happy child who they just wanted to please because his life expectancy is only seven years. They left the park after they were asked to submit a doctor's note for the boy. Last week, Dick and Silvia Glover went to the Wales West RV Park in Silver Hill, Ala., with their foster son Caleb. When the boy was banned from using the pool and showers, the Glovers said they were offered an uncomfortable and painful choice: They could either keep Caleb out of the water or leave. "We weren't sure if somebody could get the virus if the child upchucked on them or from blood or what," said Ken Zadnichek, the park's owner. "We didn't know what the risk was. That's why we asked for something from their doctor or the county health department." Dick Glover said the request for a doctor's note made it clear Caleb was unwelcome. An Alabama newspaper quoted Zadnichek as saying, "I'm not responsible for their feelings. I'm responsible for the well-being of everybody in the park. If their feelings got hurt, I'm sorry. That's the way it's got to be." Upset and dismayed, the couple left with their son. "Here we are paying for the facilities, but there's certain ones our son can't use," Dick Glover said. Glover said on "Good Morning America Weekend Edition" that he could understand where Zadnichek was coming from, but added Zadnichek should have been more informed about HIV and AIDS." Little Caleb, he was innocent as can be," Glover said. "It was not he's fault he was born with AIDS." Silvia Glover said it never occurred to her Caleb's HIV status would be an issue. In fact, the matter came up in a casual conversation with a desk clerk when she told the attendant of her plans to adopt the toddler. The Glovers said they chose the location because of their son's love of trains. Wales West features steam and diesel locomotives -- similar to ones used by the mining industry in Wales -- on a railway that circles a small lake. Complicating matters is the fact that 69-year-old Dick Glover suffers from advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He is expected to have 18 months to live. Silvia Glover said some Americans are not educated enough about HIV."They don't know near enough, especially that children are totally innocent and represent no danger to the public," she said. Medical experts said the HIV virus is unable to spread through casual contact." There's absolutely no way you can get HIV from a pool or a shower casual contact using the same facilities," said David Little, director of South Alabama CARES, an AIDS education and outreach organization that serves 12 counties in south Alabama. "It just doesn't happen." The Glovers said Caleb is a happy child who they just wanted to please because his life expectancy is only seven years.

Response from the owner of Wales West Light Railway & RV Resort I own several small businesses near Silverhill called the Wales West Light Railway & RV Resort.

The purpose of the RV Resort is to provide quality campsites to summer families and winter snowbirds, and by all accounts it does just that.My businesses have been dragged into a controversy that I had never given much thought to until just a few weeks ago.

In light of all the negative publicity that we have recently experienced, I wanted to present my side of the story.

It all started when I instructed my staff to ask Silvia and Dick Glover to temporarily keep their HIV positive 2-year-old foster child out of the common areas of the resort until we received documentation from the child's physician or the health department telling us there was no health risk to the rest of the people in the resort, especially the children.

It seemed like a reasonable course of action to take because, to our discredit, neither my staff nor I were sure of the risk factors involvedwith a child this young.Like most people, we knew that AIDS can be transmitted through unprotected sex, contaminated needles and pregnancy.

Many of us knew that the virus is present in a host's blood and that someone could be infected by coming into contact with the blood. We also knew AIDS is incurable.But none of us knew whether any or all of the fluids that small children so freely "share" with the rest of us were a health risk to the rest of our RV park guests.

From the moment that I instructed my manager to ask the Glovers for some help in understanding what we were dealing with, we have been accused by them and people far and wide of being everything from ignorant, beer-drinking Southern rednecks to heartless bigots bent on discriminating against AIDS victims.

That is simply not the truth.The dictionary defines ignorant as "lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified." That was not the case, because we knew that therisk posed by an adult with AIDS was negligible if we stayed away from the sex-and-needle issues.We were "unlearned," which is defined in the dictionary as "suggests ignorance of advanced subjects."

Those advanced subjects I am talking about are the risk of another child contracting HIV from all the other body fluids that infants shed.

What happened when my manager asked the Glovers for some written assurance that there was no risk to the other hundred or so guests (about half of them being children) defies all reason.

Instead of helping us assess this new situation that none of us had ever been faced with, the Glovers threatened legal action and media publicity. This is when I realized that no matter what I did next, I was going to be in a no-win situation.

All the official places I could call were closed for the Fourth of July holiday, so that was no help. The resort was full and every one of us was busy as we could be, so there was no time to surf the Internet for answers.Plus, it was starting to get dark. I had to protect my other guests from what was starting to look like a very serious situation.

I knew in my heart that "protecting the many" was the right thing to do.I sent my manager back to the Glovers, who told him that if the child was not allowed to use all the facilities, they were no longer comfortable staying in the resort. My manager offered to refund them all their money and give them a free night's stay, which they accepted. We all went back to work.

It was to be a short-lived peace.First, a TV reporter showed up to ask if it was true that we had thrown a young child out of the swimming pool and the family out of the park because the child had HIV. Then the newspaper called, wanting to know the same thing.

I told them the whole story, but all they seemed interested in was that I had asked the Glovers to refrain from taking the infected child into the public areas until we got some formal assurance there was no health risk.Then the national news shows started calling, and people with no idea as to what had really happened started calling and shaming, cussing and threatening me to the point that my wife became so frightened that she called the police.

Every time I turned on a TV or looked at a paper, there were the Glovers talking about their ordeal and that they were glad that it had become an opportunity for AIDS education. I never saw a reporter ask them why they had not simply cooperated with us.

Meanwhile, I was also receiving an equal amount of calls and e-mails from people thanking me for protecting my guests. We were grateful for their support, but because none of the callers knew the whole story, either, I was unsure as to what to make of it. Then, when all the people at the resort started thanking me, I knew I had done the right thing to err on the side of caution.I do not understand why the Glovers missed a golden opportunity to educate us in what risks, if any, were genuinely involved.

Wouldn't it have been better for the child if they had worked with us discreetly by putting us in touch with someone in authority for the assurance we were seeking?

What I have learned to date from reading Centers for Disease Control reports supplied by both sides of this tempest in a teapot is that HIV can be found in all of an infant's fluids.

The CDC tells you that no one has reported contracting the disease from the atmosphere, but also that you should always be shielded when cleaning up after a HIV infant (or anyone else infected with the virus, for that matter).

One CDC report reveals that the agency knows of one person infected by a bite, but that there are several other people who have been bitten who are OK. Sharing a bed with an HIV infant has infected some children, according to the CDC, but not many; and infant drool is infectious, but not very much.And so on.

What I have not come across is anything that states clearly, with no room for doubt, that an HIV infant's body fluids are 100 percent safe to be exposed to without wearing protection.

My staff and I met last week with the HIV state coordinator for Baldwin County, who promised me that she would see if any guidelines were available regarding child-to-child contact, but she was doubtful there were any.

She suggested that we treat the children the same way we would treat adults -- which might be fine, except for the fact that children do not understand the dangers involved, because they are children, not adults.

I do not yet have all the answers to infant HIV, but I do know some things. I know that in the end, the truth will always win out. I know that one young child was done a disservice, and I am grateful that he is too young to comprehend the turmoil swirling around him.I know my whole family has worked seven days a week for more than six years and gone into a great deal of debt to build an RV resort for families with Christian values because we believe we were called to do so.I know that our sister business, the Wales West Light Railway, has brought joy to the hearts of thousands of kids of all ages.

The struggle to understand, educate and cure HIV-infected children needs to be fought by people who live in a world of reason and understanding. This topic is too important to ignore.If we work together, we can find ways to improve the long-term health and happiness of these little victims.We at Wales West stand ready to do just that. We hope others will join us in the effort.