FAYETTEVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT PRESS
The Voice
www.fsuvoice.com
FOR Students, by Students
February 23, 2011 • Vol. 2, Issue no. 8
Living with AIDS
Ms, Brown
eventually told
her family the
news, Her
mother cried for
hours.
By Naadiya Hopkins
Voice Staff Writer
Stephanie Brown is a vibrant, bubbly,
happy perspn who has been living with
HIV for five years. She is a senior, mass
communications major at Fayetteville
State University. She is just another stu
dent on campus that is living life.
She contracted HIV from a young man
that lived on campus. They began a rela
tionship. While they were having sex he
decided to remove the condom and that’s
how she contracted the virus.
From April of 2006
to June 2006, she
couldn’t walk, lost a
lot of weight, couldn’t
sleep and could barely
use the restroom. In
June 2006, she found
out that she was HIV
positive. She began
to feel disappointed,
angry, depressed and
hopeless.
Ms. Brown eventually told her fam
ily the news. Her mother cried for hours.
Her parents tried to get her to take some
time off from school. She decided to re-
mam in school. It gave her a place to vent
and focus her energy. Ms. Brown said that
this type of news not only affects you, it
affects everyone around you, especially
your family and fiiends.
The cost for her medication is about
$2,600 a month. She does not have insur
ance. She receives help for her medication
through a program named UNC-ADPAT.
This program is a non-profit organiza
tion that is being funded by government
grants. This organization helps with doc
tor’s appointments and prescriptions.
Ms. Brown works for the Cape Fear
Bureau for Community Action. This busi
ness is a nonprofit orginization in Fayette
ville. They provide patients with mentors,
advice and help with job interviews.They
also provide HIV/ AIDS testing. As far as
dating, a lot of guys have tried to have sex
with her. She is honest with them about
‘Play’ visits FSU,
encourages
her condition. She does have a social life
and still enjoys an active dating hfe.
Last week, Ms. Brown spoke at an
event on campus sponsored by the HOSA
and Marketing Club. She spoke about a
few preventive ways to stop the spread of
mV and AIDS.
■ Check the expiration date on the con
dom
■ Make sure there are no holes in the
condom
■ Turn the lights on if necessary dur
ing sex
■ No skin should be exposed
when the condom is on
■ Never put on two con
doms at one time
Sperm can live
up to six to eight
hours after it
leaves the body.
There are many
places to go
get tested for
HIV or AIDS. The clos
est place to get tested for
HIV is at the FSU Health
Services Center. They
provide free confidential
testing.
This event was a great
opportunity for students to
learn and to make a differ
ence in there community. Ms.
Brown stated that all people are
“queens and kirigs.”
“Anything worth having
is worth working for,” said
Ms. Brown. In today’s
society young adults al
ways want things to
come quickly and
everything to move
so fast. Ms. Brown
wants everyone to
think about the de
cisions that they make
and who the decisions
will affect afterwards.
Safe Sex? Are you safe enough?
by Chamell Harris
Voice News Editor
We are dying. We, the givers of life are dy
ing. Our killer does not own a gim and has no
motive.
Our killer does not discriminate
and has no face, only a name. Our
killer is HIV/AIDS and other sexu
ally transmitted diseases.
Last week, was National Condom
Week and various events were held
on campus to promote safe sex.
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported that more
than half a million people have lost
their lives to HIV/AIDS since the eighties in
the United States alone. 18,000 people con
tinue to die irom it every year.
Living here in Fayetteville, the
odds are not stacked in our favor. It
is the South, and is going through
hard economic times and has
a large population of African
Americans. Statistics show that
given these factors, we are at a
higher risk to contract sexually
transmitted diseases and even
HIV/AIDS.
The CDC also has reported
that the highest age group liv
ing with HIV/AIDS is people
between the ages of 15-24.
One out of 16 African-Amer-
ican men will get HIV/AIDS in
their lifetime. One out of 30 Af
rican-American women will
get it in theirs. No wonder
the African-American
community is the high
est racial demograph
ic for contracting
it. It makes up
almost 5 0
percent of
the total
amount of
cases.
Every
nine-and-a-
, , , do students
really know all they
need to know In
order to be safe
sexually?
students pages
Debate team
defeats
Methoiist page:
half minutes, someone is diagnosed with the
disease in the United States alone. More than
one million (1.1 million) people nationwide are
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS as reported in 2010.
One out of five do not even know they are in
fected.
The CDC reports that
North Carolina has one
of the highest concen
trations of HIV/AIDS
with 33,321 people
living with the disease
as of 2008. It is on the
list for the top 10 states
with the highest con
centrations along with
California, Florida and New York..
The CDC just released new information on
the status of African-Americans affected by
HIV/AIDS, stating that (African-American)
gay men have the highest risk of developing
the disease, due to a riskier lifestyle. Second
on the list are heterosexual, Afi-ican-American
women, who are 15 times more likely to- get
infected than White women.
There are commercials on BET, and most
college students have had at least had one sex
education class. Yet, with the rise of abortions,
STD’s and HTV/AIDS and teen pregnancies, do
students really know all they need to know in
order to be safe sexually?
“I feel I know enough, the condoms and the
birth control and all. But I’m pretty sure there
is a lot more out there [that I should know],”
said Letika Leggett, an FSU sophomore and
sociology major.
How much do students know about all the
preventative measures available to them and do
they know where to go for help? And what do
students want to know?
“Honestly, I want to know the HIV/AIDS
rate at the university,” said Bryce Hill, fi-esh-
men Sociology major.
“I would like to know more about the pre
cautions I could take. You know everyone is
not going to wait until their married to have
sex,” said Ms. Leggett.
Besides HIV/AIDS, people become infected
with sexually transmitted diseases such as chla
mydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes and human
see AIDS, page 12
INDEX
News page 2
Features page 9
Opinion page 7