Every day, Don Pearson of Des Moines takes 62 pills just so he can function.

On Tuesday, Pearson, who is HIV-positive, attended “Go away, we don’t want AIDS here” in Boone, an informative session to help prevent discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.

The program, sponsored by Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA), could help keep Iowa’s fastest growing demographic of new HIV cases, women under the age of 25, from causing a decrease in the birthrate in the next generation, said Tim Clark, AIDS/HIV educator and volunteer for MICA.

Clark said he is scared by this statistic.

The state of Iowa mandates “a unit” of HIV education every year from first to twelfth grades.

There is a major flaw in the wording of the law, said Sharon Miller, Red Cross HIV/AIDS education coordinator in Des Moines. The law does not define what a unit is, and thus allows a school just handing out a flier about HIV and AIDS to be considered sufficient, she said.

Clark used a slide show provided by Abbott Virology, an Illinois HIV research company, that gave a straightforward and simple explanation of how HIV spreads and how a combination drug therapy helps slow the disease from spreading rapidly.

There were seven people in attendance at the presentation.

“If 200 people come to a presentation, that’s great,” Clark said, “but if none of them get any information out of the program, our time would have been better spent getting information to just a few people who really want it and intend to share it with friends.”

Janelle Durlin, coordinator for the Living with HIV program at MICA, said there is a need for donations to the emergency relief fund, which helps her clients make rent payments, pay for utilities and sometimes just get gas to get to the doctor.

There is also a huge need for volunteers, having no staff of her own, she said.

The most important thing is to get the message out that there are people in Story County, Boone County and every other county in Iowa living with HIV, Durlin said.