Black residents in Mecklenburg County continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, despite advances in treating the disease. In 2024, Black residents accounted for about 60% of new cases. In part one of a two-part series, WFAE explores some of the reasons behind the disparities and the challenges faced by those living with HIV.
Lorenzo Tucker shook a treatment bottle in his bedroom in the University City area one recent afternoon. The new pills have been helping Tucker.
“No side effects, typically, there are no side effects to the HIV drugs for myself,” Tucker said. "I can’t say for anyone else,”
The 38-year-old recalls what he was told when he found out he had HIV.
“The woman who gave me the result told me that she never saw anyone take the news as calmly as I took it,” Tucker said.
That’s because being diagnosed with HIV didn’t come as a surprise for Tucker.
“As a teenager, as a young adult. I was very sexually active,” Tucker said. “I was sleeping with random people. So, I knew my chances would be a little more to have it than not to have it at that time.”
There are reasons behind why he was so sexually active.
“I liked sex. That was one of the major reasons why,” Tucker said. "Maybe I had a problem with it at that time.”
Tucker is part of the LGBTQ+ community. Growing up, he says he mostly had unprotected sex with males. He also says that during his youth, he had to deal with his mother being a drug addict.
“She would go off to rehab and take my sister. So I would just be home or at my grandmother's house,” Tucker said. "So I had a lot of free time on my hands, and I wasn’t being supervised as much as some of my other friends and peers.”
Tucker says his mother has now been clean for 11 years. He is African American, part of a racial group that made up about 60% of new HIV cases in 2024. That’s almost twice Black residents’ share of the county’s population. Latino residents made up about 24% of new HIV cases in 2024, while white residents made up about 13%.
As for why he thinks HIV cases might be more prevalent in the Black community in recent years, Tucker says: “Maybe because people aren’t as afraid of HIV as they once were. Because it was a death sentence at one time, a lot of people tried to use protection and stay from contracting HIV, but now that it’s treatable, maybe people who are doing these acts aren’t as afraid of it as they once were,” Tucker said.
To help support people in his community, Tucker hosted a town hall this year in February in uptown with Charlotte Black Pride.
About 50 people, including county officials and care providers, turned up for the Charlotte Black Pride event that aimed to raise awareness for those dealing with or impacted by HIV.
Tucker used to work for C.W. Williams Community Health Center, but he says things changed for him as a result of that forum, which included Quality Comprehensive Health Center.
“I was told that I was being terminated because of a conflict of interest,” Tucker said. “And that conflict of interest was that Quality Comprehensive Health [Center] was one of their competitors, unfortunately.”
Tucker says he had to turn to food stamps and an HIV support group to help him pay his rent.
“It tore me down. It really hurt,” Tucker said. "Because I put a lot into C.W. Williams, I put my all into C.W. Williams.”
Dr. Marc Johnson closes a door inside Atrium Health’s hospital near Myers Park. Johnson supports patients with HIV.
From 2020 to 2024, the number of new HIV cases diagnosed in the county increased from 212 to 285. HIV cases among African Americans also rose during that period, from 135 in 2020 to 171 in 2024, despite a slight drop to 169 cases in 2023.
“When you look at the data, 2020 was COVID, and so the data was somewhat truncated, but if you look basically from 2021 to 2024, it's a very flat line,” Johnson said.
Despite it being a flat line, Johnson says the infection remains a concern.
“HIV is still a problem,” Johnson said. “We have not put in the necessary resources to really make a dent in decreasing the number of people.”
From 2020 through 2025, the county received more than $15 million in state and federal funds to address HIV. In 2016, Johnson helped draft what is now known as the “Getting to Zero” plan, a local initiative that Mecklenburg County now oversees. It includes several community and care groups that provide HIV services. Johnson says that before the initiative, the local response to the infection was a problem.
“It was very disjointed. I think in some cases it was not very effective for those who are infected with HIV,” Johnson said. “But with this collaborative effort, where we have a meeting every month, we work towards making sure that all the needs of individuals are met by referral, giving people information about resources.”
An executive summary from the county in 2020 outlined some of the plan’s goals that officials hoped to achieve by last year. It included ensuring that 75% of county residents age 13 and older are tested or screened for HIV at least once. The county also aimed to link 90% of newly diagnosed clients to care within seven days of their diagnosis and to increase HIV testing rates by 75% in priority populations, such as African Americans.
The county says they’re meeting their goals, but they add that it’s difficult to get a full sense of whether everyone is getting tested, as some residents use private providers.
Johnson says that those who are primarily affected by HIV among Black county residents are gay men in the LGBTQ+ community.
“HIV is very prevalent in their community. It tends to be a very small community, and as a result, you get a pathogen into that community,” Johnson said. “You have more chance of actually coming in contact with HIV than if you were in a larger population of many different ethnic groups or different backgrounds."
As for what needs to be done to help reduce the number of cases in the county, Johnson pointed to a few key actions needed.
“We still need people for all of the city of Charlotte residents to come out and be tested. That is the start,” Johnson said.
Johnson says newer steps — like taking PrEP, a medication that helps prevent people from getting HIV — can help reduce the number of cases and move the county closer to its “Getting to Zero” goal.
That’s part one of WFAE’s series exploring why HIV has disproportionately affected Black residents of Mecklenburg County. In part two, we continue to examine the impact of HIV on this minority community. We also speak with people who receive medication to help limit the spread of the infection and look at how the county has spent more than $15 million to address HIV and the goals officials set for reducing new cases.
