Speakers discuss HIV infection rates among minorities

Several speakers discussed HIV and its effect on minority populations Thursday night at a presentation and interactive discussion with the public in the Walnut room of the Indiana Memorial Union.\nIU student Omar Casillas \nfrom Sigma Lambda Beta, which presented the event, said the goal was to get the word out on HIV, especially for college students and minorities.\n"I think minorities have less knowledge on HIV because it's not something as talked about in our culture," said Casillas, who is Latino.\nAudience member Carlos Sainz commented on the value of providing HIV education. \n"I think I learned more about HIV in my high school than in my house," he said.\nJasynda Lacy, who represents \nPositive Link, a program that does HIV outreach, prevention, and case management for Bloomington Hospital, was the main speaker for the event. \nAlthough fewer than a dozen people turned out for the event, Lacy went through the facts and myths of contracting HIV, including signs and symptoms, how HIV is transmitted, who's at risk and how to prevent it.\nLacy said Latinos view HIV as the second biggest health concern, behind cancer, and African Americans consider it the No. 1 health problem in the United States.\nLacy said 40 million people in the world have HIV, including 1 million in the U.S. Of those people, only one-third who have it know they do and are doing something about it. The rest of those infected either do not know it or are not doing anything about it.\n"It's not who you are that puts you at risk," she said. "It's what you do. It's a behavior that puts you at risk."\nLacy also said college-aged individuals have increasing rates of HIV. \n"I always recommend getting tested if you've put yourself at risk," she said. "People should be learning as much as they can about it and getting tested."\nLacy also straightened out common myths about HIV.\n"Not everyone that has HIV will get the symptoms," she said. "But whether or not they have symptoms they can still transmit virus to other people. Someone could theoretically live with the virus for a very long time and not even know they have it."\nDuane Shearer, who also represented Positive Link at the event, works with the Spanish-speaking community to inform them about HIV and advocate for HIV testing.\n"Right now the HIV rate for Caucasians has been pretty level, but for Hispanics and African Americans it's slightly rising," Shearer said. "There are a lot of people that I work with everyday that know almost nothing about how you get HIV."\nPositive Link offers free HIV testing every Monday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bloomington Hospital.