LISA Ross is one person who won't talk about work when she's on a date - as one of Hong Kong's top AIDS experts, the conversation easily gets around to some prematurely explicit talk, and talk of a devastating sexually transmitted disease can be a real blow to a romantic evening.
Apart from not carrying business cards on Sundays, that's about the only time when one of the founding members of AIDS Concern is not on the job, promoting awareness about the spread of AIDS and encouraging compassion in the territory where many misconceptions still prevail.
She was also the prime mover behind last night's gala premiere of the film Philadelphia, for which Tom Hanks won his best actor Academy Award. Proceeds went to AIDS Concern and it is hoped that the Hollywood film, which opens here on Thursday, will help promote awareness of the disease in Hong Kong as it has done in America.
In 1985, Hong Kong's first HIV-positive diagnosis was made and the Government quickly swung into action with a small, but dedicated band of health care workers at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which provided everything from patient care to pamphlets on AIDS and HIV.
Five years later AIDS Concern began, first with a hotline, taking the AIDS awareness message to the community level. It is work done at a grassroots level, which Lisa believes is the most effective, and it is an approach she encouraged when she helped establish AIDS Concern and later became its chief executive administrator and spokesperson.
''I just knew that the only way you could get this to be seen as an issue for the entire community was when the community got involved. It's only at the community level that the message gets across, the message that AIDS is an important issue for Asia and people need to learn all they can and protect themselves,'' said Lisa.
