Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Sunday, November 29, 2009
By PAUL COLLINS - Bulletin Staff Writer
An HIV/AIDS awareness event, including a presentation and free, confidential oral HIV testing, will be held at Patrick Henry Community College on Thursday.
Thomas Salyer, case manager for the West Piedmont AIDS Task Force, will do a presentation from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Walker Theater of the Walker Fine Arts Building on the PHCC campus.
The staff from the Drop-In Center in Roanoke will do HIV testing on campus (by appointment) from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call (540) 815-4660 for a test appointment.
Salyer said he will tell his story about being HIV-positive. Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is the virus that causes AIDS, an immunodeficiency disease that weakens the body’s ability to fight infection. There is no cure for AIDS.
Salyer also will talk about such things as HIV/AIDS in the community and the stigma against HIV/AIDS that he says prevents many people from being tested.
“I would like to stress how important it is for people in our community to get tested,” Salyer wrote. “It will help to prevent someone who is HIV-positive and not aware of their status to infect others, and it would also get them into care sooner than later.
“In this area most of our clients don’t know they’re HIV-positive until they end up in the ER (emergency room) or hospital very ill. If we continue to educate our community, I believe more people would be tested and protect themselves from getting infected,” he added.
The oral HIV testing involves use of a swab, and the results should be back in about 20 minutes, Salyer said. Staff from The Drop-In Center staff also will do pre- and post-counseling.
If someone’s test results are positive, additional testing will be done, and it takes three to four days to get those results, Salyer said. In the meantime, the person will be referred to the local health department or the task force “so we can lead (them) in the next direction,” he said.
If a person’s oral HIV test results on Dec. 3 are negative, he or she will be counseled on such things as safer sex practices, Salyer said.
The mission of the Drop-in Center includes providing access to information/education, resources and services in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and offering support services for persons affected by HIV/AIDS, according to its Web site.
Salyer said the AIDS awareness event at PHCC also is in observance of World AIDS Day, but he was unable to schedule the event on the actual day.
World AIDS Day is observed every Dec. 1 to raise awareness and focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic. “Over a million Americans are estimated to be living with HIV. Worldwide an estimated 33 million people are living with HIV,” according to the Web site for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Salyer said he has lived in this area for five years, and he is not aware of anything having been done here during that time to celebrate World AIDS Day.
The event at PHCC is for the whole community, not only PHCC students, Salyer said. He added that he hopes the event will get people to talk about HIV/AIDS and encourage more people to be tested to stop its spread.
According to statistics on the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Web site, there were 20,838 Virginians with HIV/AIDS in 2008. This is an estimate using the number of people who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and reported within the database, and are not known to have died, VDH states.
In 2008 in Henry County, 49 people were living with HIV/AIDS out of a population of 55,544, according to the VDH Web site.
The county had about the 18th lowest prevalence rate of people living with HIV/AIDS among the 91 cities and counties for which those rankings were given on the VDH Web site. Rankings were not given for 41 cities and counties, including Patrick County.
Prevalence rate is calculated by dividing the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in a locality by the locality’s population, then multiplying that by 100,000 to get a rate per 100,000, so that cities and counties can be compared on an apples-to-apples basis.
In 2008, Martinsville had 37 people living with HIV/AIDS out of a city population of 14,578, according to the VDH Web site.
The city had about the 37th highest prevalence rate of people living with HIV/AIDS, according to the VDH Web site.
According to the site, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS statewide increased from 19,540 in 2007 to 20,838 in 2008. In Henry County, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was 49 in both 2007 and 2008, and in Martinsville the number of people living with HIV/AIDS increased from 35 in 2007 to 37 in 2008, according to the site. Patrick County had seven people living with HIV/AIDS in both 2007 and 2008, according to the Web site, which listed the 2007 population estimate for Patrick County at 18,870.
The most recent data obtained from the VDH Web site, for the March-to-June quarter of 2009, give the numbers of AIDS and HIV (not AIDS) cases for the state, cities and counties, but no comparative rankings for cities and counties. In Henry County, there were 29 people living with AIDS and 23 living with HIV (not AIDS), for a total of 52; in Martinsville, 16 living with AIDS and 21 living with HIV (not AIDS), for a total of 37; and in Patrick County, three living with AIDS and four living with HIV (not AIDS), for a total seven.
For Virginia, there were 9,387 people living with AIDS and 11,727 living with HIV (not AIDS), for a total of 21,114. |
| |
|
|
.jpg)