For better and worse, attitudes about HIV and AIDS are changing.

HIV patients are living longer and are no longer stigmatized, but misconceptions about the treatment of the virus is leading to new infections in younger patients, Stacey Waites, executive director of Warren County HIV Services told Port City Kiwanis last week.

“One of the reasons the numbers are going up is because you don’t hear about it,” Waites said.

Part of the cause for concern could be the Magic Johnson Effect, Waites said.

Basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced in 1991 that he had HIV, and over the years, misinformation has leaked that Johnson was cured of the virus, Waites said.

“That was the — and I hate to use this because it’s very strong — the worst thing that happened to education about HIV,” Waites said of the misinformation about Johnson’s so-called cure.

Johnson is not cured and still carries the virus that causes AIDS, but has doctors who can monitor his blood every day and constantly update his medication when he becomes resistant, she said.

That’s something young people don’t seem to know.

“I go talk to school kids all the time and they go ‘well, Magic Johnson was cured. If I get it I just take medicine.’ He was not cured, but that’s what the message was,” Waites said.

Teens need better education about HIV, she said, because the fastest growing group for infection is adults in their early to mid-20s. That typically means they were infected in their late teens, she said.

Educating the public is just part of what the HIV Services clinic does, she said.

“We go from people walking in going ‘I’m scared. I did something bad last night that I’m worried about’ … to helping with wills and funerals and following up after death,” she said.

The local clinic, which is in the basement of the Warren County Health Department, was founded in the early 1990s when “there was just so much unknown” about HIV and AIDS, Waites said.

At that time, doctors didn’t want AIDS patients coming into their waiting rooms, she said. Now, support from family members and doctors are at an all-time high, she said.

“Healthcare workers know that actual HIV is manageable for a longer period of time,” Waites said