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Dr. Laurie Dill Medical Director of Medical Advocacy & Outreach (formerly known as Montgomery AIDS Outreach) By Henrietta McGuire Photography by DiAnna Paulk First of all there was fear, morphing into terror as the number of deaths increased. In Europe in the 1300’s the silent killer was so mysterious no one knew how or when it would strike next. Was it in the air, the water, perhaps your pets or livestock, in your touch? And the speed at which it advanced! Patients seemed to complain only a day or two and then, within a few hours, they were gone, often in excruciating pain. And because it was so frightening without even a name people in England just called it the Black Death. Six hundred years later something equally frightening struck again, this time in our part of the world. In the 1980s it was flourishing in the Southeast, as baffling as its ancient ancestor, but now with a name. AIDS. Dr. Laurie Dill re- members. “The medical world at first was helpless. We did- n’t understand the disease, there was no effective medication and like everyone else, all we could do was to stand by and watch people die.” “We” meant only a handful of doctors, since most of the medical profession wanted nothing to do with AIDS pa- tients. Stay away! Don’t shake hands, don’t breathe near me! Dr. Dill may not deserve the Purple Heart for courage but it still required a tough spirit to deal with AIDS patients.“Though most people were still frightened,” she says, “by the time I came along in the 1990s we knew a lot more about the disease and especially how it was transmit- ted.” After graduating fromUAB medical school she served as the Medical Director of the Montgomery County Health Department, but was soon engulfed by AIDS and in 1996 joined Montgomery Aids Outreach. “Even today the stigma,” she says, “can kill, because shame prevents people from being tested and treated. So they just let it go until it’s too late.” The daughter of a Methodist minister in Mobile, she seems much too lady-like to be dealing with the effects of AIDS. But undaunted and undeterred she has spent twenty- two years rescuing the desperate, treating and encouraging and bringing them hope, in public health departments, and now finally in a clinic dedicated exclusively to AIDS and H.I.V. patients. When she shows you around the building - including a stand-alone, new dental clinic - you might remember the Biblical quotation about pride. She doesn‘t say it directly but you know she sees every inch as bathed in a golden glow. Here they can work faster, more cheaply, more efficiently, take care of more people and rescue another family. The clinic is federally funded along with insurance claims, but no one is turned away with or without financial resources. After the first shock of AIDS diminished a little, the var- ious medical and scientific communities began a concen- trated effort to discover both the origins and treatments of the disease. Great advances were made so that today AIDS is no longer a death sentence. “Here in the Southeast we still have the highest percentage of cases of any area in the country,” Dill says, “but we’re dealing with it. Science came up with a cocktail of medications which could control the illness if taken early enough. Nowmost people are well con- trolled and taking only one pill a day. We have learned that if you are tested, treated, and receiving proper care as a pa- tient you can live a normal life.” One of the most important advances is the effect on chil- dren. Today if the correct regimen is followed a mother with AIDS does not pass the disease along to her babies. “That was the additional tragedy,” Dill says, “that the innocent child was born already sick. As the attitudes of society slowly change people are becoming more tolerant, especially in urban communities. Out in the rural areas there’s still fear, but we’re progressing little by little.” On one wall at the clinic is a small photograph showing Dr. Dill and other colleagues. They’re attending a national conference at the White House where Dill is making a speech about their work in Montgomery. “We learned a lot that day.” Find us on Facebook and Instagram APRIL 2018 25