The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in four people who are HIV positive don’t know it. The CDC recommends HIV testing for everyone between the ages of 13 and 64. The first step to protecting yourself is finding out your HIV status. Here, you will read three different people’s perspectives and their journey to acceptance of this malady that had become an epidemic in the African American community. They are: TN, (initials used to protect subject’s anonymity; Marvelyn Brown, activist; and Phill Wilson, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute. –tony binns
TN shares:
Since finding out your status how has HIV affected your life personally and professionally?
Well, professionally, I think it has enhanced my life because people are a little more sympathetic to the things I am going through. On a personal note, for me it was harder in the beginning, but as .. [time went on] I think it was kind of a blessing. I’ve made such great friendships in the process.
Did you seek professional help dealing with finding out you were positive and would you advocate it?
I would strongly advise seeking professional counseling should you find out you are positive. I began services with Michael Reese Hospital and joined a support group that helped me work through it all.
Marvelyn Brown shares:
What was your initial reaction to the news?
I was shocked, but I wasn’t shocked the way people think I was shocked. People thought I was shocked to hear the news I was HIV positive. But I was shocked because I had contracted something I felt was not an issue for me — it was something [I thought] I was immune from.
What advice would you give people who are impacted by HIV, but have not come to terms with it?
The advice I would give them is HIV does not define you. … I believe HIV will do what you allow it to do to you.
Phill Wilson shares:
Why should people get tested?
There are any number of reasons people should know their HIV status: 1) If you know your HIV status it provides you with information about your health [and] we should all be trying to get as much information as we can about our health. Knowing your status is a right. Knowing your partner’s HIV status can save your life. 2) If you are HIV positive, your HIV status can help you get into health care treatment, and appropriate health care treatment can extend … your life. And if you are negative you can continue to [do] things to protect yourself from becoming positive.
What should the community know about HIV?
I think it is so clear [that] HIV is a health issue; it is a civil rights issue; it is an urban renewal issue; it is a men’s issue; it is a women’s issue. … I think the most important thing for black folks to understand is that HIV is our issue. It is not our only issue, but the truth of the matter is — whether we like it or not — HIV is chiefly our issue and we really do not have a single human being in our community to spare or waste. … And we need to be fighting for each and every one of us and it does not matter your gender or sexual orientation, age, or socioeconomic class … every black person counts towards the survival of our race.
