According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Lane County has the fourth-largest HIV population in the state.
The CDC’s HIV/AIDS Reporting System calculated that, as of Dec. 31, 2006, there were 270 known cases of HIV in Lane, accounting for 5.8 percent of HIV cases in Oregon.

The numbers may seem high, but Lane County is no different than other counties throughout the state and the nation, said Sean Schafer at the State of Oregon’s Department of Human Services.
“Lane is just like other counties of similar population,” said Schafer. “Actually, it’s a little bit lower than normal.”
For example, he said, Marion County’s population is similar to Lane’s but has a rate of 103 cases per 100,000 people, significantly more than Lane’s 81 cases per 100,000.
He said Lane’s low rates “may have to do with the nature of testing facilities and how much they encourage people to get tested. I know they do a lot of good work in the Lane community.”
University Health Center Director Tom Ryan said Lane’s data “correlate with the population centers in the state as well as with locations where there is a strong infrastructure to provide information, promote testing, and offer treatment and support.”
The biggest HIV population in Oregon was in Multnomah County, which houses Portland and its surrounding neighborhoods. At the end of 2006, there were 2,711 known cases in Multnomah, which accounted for 58.6 percent of the state.
“In the West, HIV is most prevalent in men who have sex with other men,” said Schafer. “People who are gay often concentrate in urban areas” like Portland.
Even given Portland’s high rates, Oregon as a state has fewer HIV cases than the rest of the country. In terms of HIV numbers, “it’s in the bottom third,” Schafer said.
The highest numbers are along the East Coast and in the South.
“During the early 1980s, when HIV was becoming more prevalent, the kinds of drugs were different on different coasts,” said Greg Eicher at Lane County Public Health. “They used tar heroin on the West Coast and powder heroin on the East Coast, so there was a big impact on risk reduction in the West.”
Meanwhile, in the East, HIV spread rapidly, especially through urban areas densely populated with black citizens. To this day, East Coast HIV cases are largely heterosexual and black, whereas in Oregon, “gay and bisexual men make up the majority of HIV cases,” said Eicher.
He said the reason why Lane’s numbers might be lower than normal is because they are able to target a specific population in local HIV prevention programs.
“We’ve had aggressive campaigns to target gay and bi men,” said Eicher. “We go out and meet the clients where they are.”
HIV transmission through injected drugs is also low in Lane because “we’ve had a very well conducted needle exchange program here for seven or eight years,” he said.
Although young adults are at less risk than their older counterparts, college students may be in more danger than the typical Eugene citizen because they vary in origin.
“One of the take-home messages for students who come from all over the country and the world is that there are different risks depending on where you’ve come from,” said Eicher.
He encouraged college students to test themselves for HIV periodically, just to be safe. However, he said, the real focus should be on sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, which young adults are far more likely to contract.
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