Barbara Romanowski is a clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and an honouree at this year's Alumni Awards. Spend the next few minutes getting to know her a little better.
The memories of the early years of HIV and AIDS in Edmonton still haunt Barbara Romanowski, '71 BScMed, '73 MD. She became so overwhelmed by the number of funeral services for her patients that she had to stop attending. As bad as AIDS was, as an infectious disease expert and physician, Romanowski had something else to fight - ignorance about the disease.
Below are edited excerpts from a conversation between Romanowski and Michael Phair, chair of the University of Alberta's board of governors and an early champion in Edmonton for those infected by HIV.
After Edmonton's first case of AIDS was identified in 1984, education became really important. How did you get involved in that?
I saw education as part of my job. I was director of the provincial [AIDS] program at the time. I was doing a lot of education of peers through my position at the university. I taught medical students. People were hungry for information and I did many community sessions. It was usually rewarding. Occasionally not very rewarding because of the questions that were asked at the end of the session.
Do you remember some of those questions?
The questions at the end just fed into the stigmatization. "I am afraid of taking my child to the swimming pool because they're going to become infected. What if I sit on a public toilet?" Questions along that line.
It was such a horrendous disease in those days. Everyone died.
We lost a huge number of people who were just beginning in their chosen profession, who died in two or three years and had horrible deaths. And caskets in those days required metal liners because we didn't have all the answers and individuals were concerned that somehow this virus would, I don't know, seep into the ground and do God knows what.
I'm sure that had an impact on you.
It had a tremendous impact. I did not learn in medical school how to provide palliative care but that's what we were doing. I went to many funerals in the first few years of HIV care and it took a personal toll. There came a point where I had to step back. There were too many. But I believe that in the early '90s, the media started to accept this disease. It was no longer occurring exclusively in the gay community. Now, we have a disease that is manageable. That patients should look forward to having grandchildren, to living to a geriatric age. With medications that are effective if taken and have very few side effects. But those early years were gruesome for everyone.
About Barbara Romanowski
Barbara Romanowski is a clinical professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and recipient of a 2018 Alumni Honour Award. She will receive her award at a ceremony on Monday, Sept. 24, at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. Join your fellow faculty and staff members to celebrate the accomplishments of Romanowski and other remarkable grads at this free Alumni Weekend event.