Faces of HIV exhibit tells stories of Floridians with virus
They are young, old, black, white, men and women. Their faces express sadness, peace, annoyance and calm.
All 10 Floridians have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Their portraits, video interviews and diaries, traveling around the state in a trailer, show how HIV strikes an assortment of incomes, sexualities and life stories.
“Faces of HIV,” sponsored by the Florida Department of Health, visited Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth on Friday and will be at the Palm Beach Outlets in West Palm Beach on Saturday. Its message: Get tested for the virus, which has become much easier to treat than in the 1980s, when AIDS was first diagnosed.
“We want to raise awareness that HIV is not just one group of individuals,” said Richardo Jackson, minority AIDS coordinator for the health department. “Anyone can be infected, and if you’re HIV-positive, you can learn how to prevent it from spreading.”
HIV is transmitted by sharing infected needles or having sexual contact with someone who is infected. But that doesn’t mean the virus is limited to drug and those who have illicit sex.
As “Renee,” a Jacksonville woman shares in a Faces of HIV video, a spouse can cheat, with men and women, and not tell his partner
Renee said she was diagnosed in 2007 when she was pregnant with twins. She said her husband’s reaction was, “Wow, she found out.” He was prosecuted for knowingly infecting her and spent almost five years in prison.
HIV symptoms include fever, swollen lymph nodes, ulcers in the mouth and rashes. Several medicines have been developed to treat HIV so patients can live normal lives. Still, the rate of infection in Palm Beach County rose about 20 percent over the past two years to about 8,000 known cases, health department spokesman Tim O’Connor said.
Almost half of the cases reported this year are from heterosexual sex, while 35 percent are from men who have sex with men. About one-fourth of new patients are between 40 and 49 years old. Several cities have shown particular growth, including Delray Beach, West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach, O’Connor said.
abusers
Patrice Huntley, health services director at Compass, a gay and lesbian community center in Lake Worth, visited the exhibit with her staff on Friday. She said she is constantly amazed at how much the public, as well as HIV patients,.still need to learn about the virus.
“No matter how many years they are infected, there are so many things they don’t know,” Huntley said.
She said she was telling her clients recently about Truvada, a drug that helps treat HIV and can be used to reduce the risk of infection.
Exhibit organizers have brought the trailer to 15 Florida college campuses and about 30 other locations. They say they want visitors to know no one is immune from HIV. Or, as HIV patient Renee says in her video: “It can happen to you as easily as it happened to me.”
The exhibit will travel to the Palm Beach Outlets, 1751 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., West Palm Beach (near the Tommy Hilfiger store) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Go to WeMakeTheChange.com for more information.
lsolomon@tribpub.com