Lecture deals with HIV spread, stigma

By Shamira McCray

Although African Americans and Hispanics account for nearly 30 percent of the United States population, they account for almost 70 percent of adult AIDS cases and 80 percent of pediatric AIDS cases. It is startling, but true. This statistic is one of the reasons why Winthrop’s chapter of the NAACP held a program on AIDS last Wednesday night in an effort to raise awareness of the virus.

Over 30 students showed up in Sims 215 last Wednesday night for the NAACP’s HIV/AIDS program. The program, which was entitled “HIV/AIDS and You: Let’s Talk about It,” was a collaboration with Catawba Care in Rock Hill. 

Telluss Good, from Catawba Care,  presented the lecture and began with an activity to show how fast HIV can spread. Each person in the room was given an index card and was instructed to write the names of three different individuals who were in the room. Random people were selected to read the names on their cards which were supposedly “infected” people. By the end of the activity almost everyone in the room name was called except for one individual who had an A written on her card, which stood for abstinence. 

This activity got the crowd energetic and interested in the topic at hand.

“The activity was a good way to represent, on a smaller scale, how HIV spreads in the community by one person to multiple people,” sophomore psychology major Jasmine Jamison said.

Good’s lecture revealed the statistics of HIV, primarily among African Americans.  He also lectured on the different ways HIV can be contracted and spread from one individual to the next. 

HIV is a virus that attacks a person’s immune system. One can only become infected with the virus if their blood comes in contact with it. 

The most common ways HIV can be contracted is through sexual contact with someone infected, using a needle that has also been used by an infected person and being born to an infected mother.

Good said that South Carolina is ranked fourth in the country for African Americans living with AIDS. They represent 73 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases.

“Silence is a killer,” Good said. “It’s important when we get information on AIDS to spread it someone to else.”

The highlight of the lecture, however, was when guest speaker and peer advocate CeCe, who is HIV positive, spoke to the crowd. CeCe, who is now 26 years old, has had HIV for 10 years. 

She got the disease when she was 15 years old and got tested after being notified by someone from the American Red Cross.  

After participating in a blood drive with the American Red Cross, CeCe received a phone call from someone affiliated with the organization notifying her that something was wrong with her blood. The individual recommended that she get tested for HIV. After doing so, it was then confirmed that she was indeed infected by the virus.

CeCe explained to the crowd that she adjusted well to the idea that she was infected by the disease.

“I shed like one little tear, but my family went ballistic,” CeCe said. “I didn’t have time to worry about me getting sick because I had my whole life ahead of me.”

CeCe has now been married for six years and said her faith has not wavered.

Kethania Thompson, a junior human nutrition major, was the coordinator of this program and said that she was happy with the way the program turned out. 

“I was not surprised by the high percentage of African Americans being infected by this disease because I have some background of HIV,” Thompson said. “I am interested, however, in seeing the reduction of the stigma.”