Coping with HIV

Ingrid Kloet has lived a long, healthy and productive life despite being diagnosed with HIV 21 years ago.

Kloet now works as an HIV/AIDS case manager at First Nations Community HealthSource in Albuquerque. She said she uses her personal experience to help others overcome despair when they are diagnosed.

"I like to empower the people instead of disable them," Kloet said.

Most of her newly diagnosed patients are between the ages of 19 and 22, Kloet said. When her clients find out they are HIV positive, they are often distraught to the point of wanting to take their own lives, she said.

"I have had clients newly diagnosed who were suicidal," she said. "They didn't want to live anymore because they had HIV. But that's not necessary."

Eric Peterson, who volunteers at First Nations and is also one of Kloet's patients, said the price of HIV medication can also be a shock to the newly diagnosed. It can cost up to $6,000 per month, he said.

But worse, Peterson said, are the bad days dealing with the effects of HIV.

"You wake up in the morning with a headache, feel like you didn't get any sleep at all and have aches and pains," Peterson said. "The medication is a form of chemotherapy in a way, so you don't have any energy, and you think, 'I can't do this anymore,' but you get up and do what you have to do."

Kloet said she suffered that way when she was first diagnosed.

"I was an interior designer before, and I loved it, but when I got this, that work was way too heavy on me," Kloet said. "So I ended up crying at home. I locked myself up in the house for eight or nine months."

Kloet said it was hard to accept the diagnosis because she knew she had contracted the disease from a loved one.

"I was not living at risk, not using drugs or alcohol," Kloet said. "I was raising kids for five years with a new partner."

If it hadn't been for encouragement from her son, Kloet might have never overcome her depression and moved on to help others, she said.

"My oldest son told me, 'You're still alive. Come on,' and then I thought, 'I need to see people who are living with the same disease,'" Kloet said. "So that's what I did. I went to Amsterdam, to the HIV Foundation, and from there it started."

Once Kloet began working as a volunteer for the HIV Foundation, she was interviewed by many media groups with a wide audience.

"I had a lot of interviews with magazines like Time, magazines that they have here, but in the Netherlands," Kloet said. "Then I had an interview during World AIDS Day, which is huge - I was on TV on an hour-long, primetime program."

Kloet said being in the spotlight led to the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS to invite her to be on their board of directors.

"I went to Uganda, Kenya, Thailand - I traveled a lot for People Living with AIDS conferences," she said. "And then they sent me out to see how the HIV health care system was in the USA."

It was on that trip that Kloet met her future husband and discovered her greatest challenge was yet to come.

"For 4 1/2 years I had to go back and forth to my country, the Netherlands, because my permit would run out every three months," Kloet said. "Going to the USA for a foreigner is very difficult, because when you are HIV positive, you're officially not allowed to enter the country."

Kloet said Rep. Tom Udall was instrumental in getting her permission to stay in the U.S.

"He fully supported me," she said.

Udall said he was honored to help Kloet. As her husband is a member of Udall's district, the congressman said it was part of his job to give the couple a hand.

"The Third District is such a diverse and remarkable place that I get to help a variety of people - from world-renowned activists to citizens who just need a little extra help to get by," Udall said.

Since her arrival in Albuquerque, Kloet has been working to improve health care for American Indians. She now works with Carol Maller, HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator for the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute.

Maller said Kloet is very knowledgeable and eager to share her information with students.

"Students relate well to Ingrid and actively seek her out for HIV testing," Maller said. "She advocates for students and educates them about the reasons why they should know their HIV status and take steps to protect themselves."

Maller said the anonymous testing and special events like National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day that Kloet organizes are making a difference in students' lives.

Kloet said her work at the Polytechnic Institute is one of the most important things she has done in all her years working in the field.

"I like to work with youth," she said. "The youth is the future, and we need to take care of them and teach them the right way."