By Mike Simonson, Wisconsin Public Radio

SUPERIOR (WPR) Wisconsin has the highest survival rate in the nation for people with the HIV/AIDS virus.  Because of that, more people than ever—6,600--live with the virus in the state.

Tonya Jones says she thought her life was over when she was diagnosed with HIV on January 7th, 1997.  The 32-year-old Superior mother of two says she didn't think she'd be around to talk about it 12 years later.

But not only is Jones an AIDS survivor--she's also very healthy.   Although she's not cured, medical specialists can no longer detect her virus.  

AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin Chief Operating Officer Mike Gifford says the Centers for Disease Control ranks Wisconsin and Minnesota the states with the highest survival rate in the country, with just one AIDS death annually for every 100,000 people.   That's one-tenth the number of people who die from the disease in Florida. 

Gifford credits a strong system of healthcare professionals and state and private support for their outreach efforts.  Even so, he says hundreds of people in Wisconsin living with HIV are not getting help.  Gifford says the goal is to get everyone with HIV into health care, to get the medical aid they need “to have a long and healthy life."

At one time, Tonya Jones had to take 14 pills a day, with side effects.  Now she’s down to one a day.   She says whenever she doesn’t want to take her meds, she thinks of her kids and how she doesn’t want them growing up without their mother around.  She says she needs to do it for them as well as for herself. 

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Information from Wisconsin Public Radio, www.wpr.org