St Ives harbour provides the full panoply of English bucket-and-spade attractions. There are fish-and-chip shops, amusement arcades, whelk stalls, fudge and rock shops, and souvenirs galore. Temporary membership of the Harbour Pool & Billiards Club is available for £3 a week; a free cup of tea may be obtained at the St Ives Salvation Army every Sunday at 3pm. The Cornish Bakehouse offers “award-winning” pasties with a choice of 14 fillings. I tried the “traditional” – and after a couple of mouthfuls threw it at a beady-eyed seagull. Within seconds, a dozen gulls were fighting over the remnants.
An elderly red-faced gentleman poked me in the ribs and pointed with his walking stick to a sign just above my head. It said: “Please do not feed the seagulls.” I started to apologise but he cut me short. “You don’t need to feed the buggers,” he said. “They help themselves these days. Bloody aggressive, they are. If you’re carrying something they can eat, they’ll land on your head and try and make you drop it. They work in teams and come out of the sun at you. It’s like that Hitchcock film, The Birds.”
Ian Addicoat, “well known author and ghost hunter, President of the Paranormal Research Organisation and charismatic personality”, advertises ghost walks through the town three nights a week in the summer. He seems surprised when I ask him if the HIV scare has lost him business. “Not as far as I am aware,” he says. “To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to it and I don’t read the tabloids. It is not something I’m going to lose any sleep over.”
Sandwiched between a postcard shop and a chippie halfway round the harbour is the grey stone blockhouse that is the Fore Street Methodist Church. Pastor Bill Reed is at one with his congregation in blaming the media for the HIV furore. “We feel it was definitely hyped up. One would think it only exists in St Ives, whereas it is a lot worse in other parts of the world – look at Africa. I think the publicity might possibly have damaged the reputation of the town, and that people who are scared of catching it might have stayed away. When we meet together, we pray for those families who are hurting.”
Reed adds mysteriously that he knows “the source” of the outbreak, which is strange, since the West Cornwall PCT has been at pains to protect the identities of everyone involved, only admitting that there were “up to 10” cases. Perhaps the pastor subscribes to the belief of the Daily Star, which revealed that the culprit was a “womanising drunk” who regularly took holidays in Thailand. “More than 200 terrified people have besieged an emergency centre set up in the town,” the paper reported.
Considering the levels of panic identified by visiting reporters, it is odd that only one resident was moved to write to the local paper, the St Ives Times & Echo, on the subject of HIV – and then only to express regret that it was affecting the reputation of the town. The paper chose not to publish it. Yet when the Tate announced plans to build an extension last year, the Times & Echo was inundated with letters complaining that it would be taking up much-needed car-parking spaces. Toni Carver, the editor, thinks that the locals had a lot of fun at the expense of the tabloids. “Obviously, the small percentage which was involved took it very seriously, but the reaction in the rest of the town was, ‘So what?’ There was a distinct feeling that if it had been anywhere else but St Ives, it would have been ignored. So when reporters started going into the pubs and asking people about HIV, they got spun all sorts of stories. You know, ‘It’s probably that bugger over there. He stole my pasty last year. Yeah, he’ll be the one spreading it.’”
In truth, St Ives is more vulnerable to HIV than many resorts, inasmuch as it has a substantial community of young people who spend the summer there, then head for Australia in winter, probably stopping en route in Thailand or Indonesia. Of the 7,000 people diagnosed as HIV positive in the UK last year, 59% acquired the disease through heterosexual contact, and of them three-quarters were infected abroad.
Many of the surfers waiting for a perfect wave on Porthmeor beach, in front of the Tate, have part-time summer jobs in the town and save like mad for the fare to Australia, where they can continue surfing through our winter. Such is Mike Wetherby’s ambition. He is sitting with friends on the beach, wet-suit stripped to his waist, smoking a limp cigarette and watching the Atlantic waves roll in with obsessive attention. He is a 23-year-old from Carlisle, and surfing is his life. He will stay in St Ives probably until September and then head for Oz. “This is a great place to spend the summer,” he says. “People are cool here. Probably a lot of them think that some of us are responsible for this HIV thing, but no one has said so. The strange thing is that most of us have probably got the message about safe sex better than people in their thirties and forties. We might be more active, but we don’t take chances.”
When the PCT went public with the problem, it received considerable criticism. Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National Aids Trust, said: “The overreaction of the Primary Care Trust in this case has fuelled HIV stigma in St Ives, encouraging rumour, unfounded speculation, blame and attempts to identify particular individuals as HIV positive. This undermines proven strategies for preventing the spread of HIV, which focus on voluntary contact-tracing of sexual partners and total confidentiality. This response has put at risk the confidentiality of one or more individuals living with HIV in their area, and the resulting discriminatory climate will, in the long term, only discourage others from coming forward.”
But Councillor Bill Fry, the amiable mayor of St Ives, stoutly defends the PCT’s decision. “The health authority did the right thing going public. Obviously, some people were worried that it would have a detrimental effect on tourism, but it was more important to trace those people who were at risk. St Ives is a well-known resort, but we don’t want it to get known for… well, er, what shall I say? No, I don’t think I’ll go there!”
Of the 300 people tested for HIV so far since the cluster was revealed, none has proved positive, a matter of great relief to Dr David Miles of the PCT. “It is good news that that no [more] positive cases have been discovered,” he said. “But I remain concerned that there are still some people out there who have been infected but have not yet experienced any symptoms and have not yet come forward.” It is a legitimate concern. Around 60,000 people have been diagnosed as HIV positive in the UK, a third of whom are believed to be unknowingly infected. Across the world, approximately 3m people died of Aids last year.
An unknown, ungrammatical hand rammed home the safe-sex message on the day after the PCT announcement: a crime-scene body outline was drawn on a road near the harbour with the legend: “Should of worn a condom”.
