Navy Holds Mandatory Seminars About AIDS : Disease: Officials say the two-hour sessions, for sailors and civilians, detail safe-sex practices and other ways to prevent spread of virus.

In an effort to combat the spread of the deadly AIDS virus, Navy officials this month ordered about 15,000 sailors and civilian employees stationed in Ventura County to undergo a mandatory seminar on prevention of the disease.

The two-hour session, which all sailors and civilian workers must attend by Dec. 1, details safe-sex practices and other ways to prevent the spread of the virus, Navy officials said.

The seminar covers what is known about the disease, risk factors, the rights of employees with the chronic illness and the Navy’s AIDS testing and anti-discrimination policies. The AIDS awareness seminars are put on by Navy medical personnel with the help of volunteer instructors from the American Red Cross.

To meet the Dec. 1 deadline, the Red Cross is training an additional dozen instructors to help with the seminars for the estimated 6,500 uniformed personnel and 8,500 civilian workers.

“It’s a very big task, but it is also an exciting challenge,” said Susan Habel, HIV/AIDS education chairman and training coordinator for the Ventura County chapter of the American Red Cross. “We are limiting the class size to no more than 50 people at a time so you can see how many sessions we are going to have to hold,” Habel said.

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Habel has spent months preparing for the sessions at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme and the Naval Air Weapons Station at Point Mugu. “The nice thing is that we have received a lot of support from the local commanders. They realize how important this project is.”

Navy officials said the program is part of the federal Workplace HIV/AIDS Education Initiative issued by President Clinton last spring. That initiative was made the policy of the Navy and Marine Corps earlier this summer by Navy Secretary John H. Dalton.

Dalton, in a memorandum issued last May to all base commanders, stated that the numbers of military personnel contracting the human immunodeficiency virus--the precursor to AIDS--are growing within the ranks nationwide.

“The facts are: Each year 300 active duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel become infected with HIV, and an increasing number of dependents are being infected as well,” Dalton wrote. “Commands must make a firm commitment to educate all personnel about HIV/AIDS if we are to prevent the spread of this disease, dispel myths and reduce deaths.”

The first wave of seminars began last week at both bases.

“I found (the training seminar) very informative,” said Marge Hays, a Navy spokeswoman at Point Mugu.

Hays said the instructor wasted no time in explaining specific ways the virus can and cannot be spread, and the proper use of condoms.

“If everybody educated their work force to this extent, I don’t think we would have the size problem we do with this disease today,” she said. “They really got down to the nitty-gritty and provided us with some useful information.”

At the end of each session, each person in attendance also receives a referral list of local agencies that provide counseling and other services for those who have contracted the virus.