2005 New Cases: 1,806*

Black: 63%
White: 28%
Latino: 7%

Children
College Students
Women

Adolfo Aguilar
Outreach Worker, Chatham Social Health Council
Coleen Cunningham
Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center
Milford Evans
Benefits Advocate
Gerrod Henderson
HIV Positive teenager
Peter Leone, M.D
Medical Director, HIV/STD Prevention & Care Branch
Jonathan Perry
HIV Positive
Fred Wiggins
HIV Positive
Del Williams, Ph.D
Manager, Epidemiology & Special Studies HIV/STD Prevention & Care Branch

HIV/AIDS on Campus
HIV/AIDS & Kids
HIV/AIDS & Latinos
HIV/AIDS & Women

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*NC Department of Health and Human Services

When did you find out you were HIV positive, and what happened then?
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I had gone at the behest of one of my other friends who said he was positive and that I might want to get checked because he got his results back.

I was seeing this guy on the west coast, and when I contacted him after I found out I was positive, I contacted him and let him know what was going on, and he told me that he knew already, and I'm like how can you know already, I just got the results back. And he was like, you got it from me.

I'd asked him before we had sex if he was HIV positive or if he had anything I could contract. I made it very broad so he couldn't tell me now if he had anything and be telling the truth, so I made it broad and I asked him if he had anything I could contract, and he told me no.

It broke during intercourse. The condom broke during intercourse, and I found that out after I'd gotten tested and gotten my results. And I asked him why he lied to me, and he was like, well because he figured I wouldn't want him if I knew he had it. And since I had it I could just come live with him and we could take care of each other. He said ultimately the reason he did it was because if he couldn't have me, he didn't feel like anyone else should have me either.

I began to pull myself away from campus life a lot, and it wasn't because anybody had known. I still looked the same. I still felt the same. And the only person who really knew were three people, my friend who went with me to get tested and her partner.

I'd withdrawn completely. If I couldn't take my tests via e-mail, if I couldn't do my assignments via e-mail, I didn't get them done. And I withdrew so much so to the point that if I had to leave my room to eat, I wouldn't eat. I didn't want to interact with anybody because I didn't want there to be the slightest possibility of someone going around saying things about me that weren't true - or things that were true.

You disclosed your HIV status at a campus event.
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I asked them how many of them knew someone who was HIV positive, and not many people raised their hands. Then I asked them how many people knew me, and almost everybody in the room raised their hands. It's like, if you know me, you know someone who's HIV positive. And all you saw was jaws hit the floor. Talking about it became my therapy, my means of coping, my means of dealing with it.

It's more psychological for me. My body, I haven't been sick because of the virus, and I've had it for a little over 4 years. For me it's more psychological, and me some days letting the virus get the best of me. My mind gets weak and fatigued. I think about all the people that I'll never meet, or all the people that won't want to be my friends, or all the people that'll talk about me because I am HIV positive.

I do have my bad days. There are days when I wake up and it's not psychological. I'm not going to class because I've got diarrhea or because the migraines get so bad I have to sleep with a sleep mask on because the slightest little bit of light will just send me into a frenzy.

You've become extremely outspoken about HIV and the importance of educating people, especially students.
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My babysitter told me when I was a child, I was about 5 years old, said I was going to be great. She said I was going to be a preacher. I'm not going to knock that, but I still don't see that. But what I do see is me stepping up and taking the role and the responsibility that someone else isn't willing to take.

Students on the campus are starting to see that this is something they need to take on personally, make this something that is an issue with them. Make this an intimate issue. Because people on campus, I know I'm not the only person on my campus who is infected.

My commitment was to mobilize black college students around the issue of HIV and AIDS.

We have to create some drama. We have to stir in some mess. We have to do nontraditional things to get nontraditional results because as long as we act the way we've always acted, we're going to continue to get the things we've always gotten.

I think some are taking the prevention message seriously. As long as we feel like we're invincible and like it can't happen to us - like I felt when I got infected - there's always going to be cases.

If you want to have sex and that's going to decrease your risk of contracting HIV, by all means use condoms. Use whatever you need to use to do the things you need to do, but don't get HIV.

My message to people is to stand up, take responsibility for you and your behavior.