The Voices Project: Shedding Light on AIDS in Mecklenburg County

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by FOX Charlotte

Story Created: Dec 2, 2011 at 1:05 AM EDT

Story Updated: Dec 2, 2011 at 1:05 AM EDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - About 200 people gathered at the Actor's Theatre in Charlotte Thursday night.  They came for the Voices Project.  For the first time in Charlotte, people who've been impacted by AIDS wrote their stories down and guest speakers, including FOX News Edge's Matt Harris and FOX News @ Ten's Morgan Fogarty, read them to the audience.

Fogarty told the story of a testing coordinator with the Mecklenburg County Health Department who delivered her very first HIV positive test to a client.  Hanna Stutts is that coordinator.  She says, "We're trying to make testing available to anyone and everyone because every single person needs to be tested for HIV regularly."

Stutts says the key is to catch HIV early, when the virus is still weak in your system.  Nowadays, the diagnosis is not always a death sentence.  If caught early enough, HIV can be managed with professional care.

Stutts says there has been an increase in the number of heterosexual women getting the disease and she urges them to empower themselves.  She says, "There's nothing wrong with carrying protection with you.  There's nothing wrong with asking your partner if they've been tested and asking them to see the results."

Debbie Warren is the president and CEO of Regional AIDS Interfaith Network, or RAIN.  She says there are 30,000 people living with HIV or AIDS in North Carolina.  In Mecklenburg County, a new diagnosis happens nearly every day.  She says, "It's on average about seven people a week."

Warren says women are typically diagnosed late.  "Because women are caretakers. We take care of everyone else in our families first," she says.

Warren describes the AIDS situation in not only Mecklenburg County, but the south, as urgent, even as a crisis because of limited resources.  If you'd like more info on being tested, go to www.HIVTest.org.

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