Over the past few years, HIV cases have disproportionately affected Black residents, who accounted for twice as many new cases as their share of the population. In part one of the WFAE series, we spoke with residents living with the virus and to doctors about why disparities exist. In part two, WFAE hears from others dealing with HIV, and from care providers and county officials about efforts to combat the virus.
Tanya pushes a rolling walker down the steps outside the Rosedale Health and Wellness Center in Huntersville on a recent morning. Tanya is waiting for her ride home. WFAE is using only Tanya’s first name so she can speak candidly about her health. The 59-year-old is living with HIV. Her diagnosis led to a range of emotions.
“Devastated, angry, hurt — all those emotions that come along with getting a sort of death sentence diagnosis,” Tanya said. “Because, back then, that’s what it pretty much was.”
Tanya is African American, a racial group that made up about 60% of new HIV cases in 2024. As for why Black residents are disproportionately affected, Tanya says it could be tied to people’s perception of HIV.
“Some of the younger people — I actually heard some say, ‘Oh, well, Magic Johnson got it, and he’s still living.’ So, I think that they’re not really focused — this thing is not a joke. It’s not anything to be played with.”
Magic Johnson, a former professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, is one of the biggest celebrities living publicly with HIV.
From 2020 through 2025, Mecklenburg County received more than $15 million to help address HIV in the county. Tanya says she would like to see more support for residents fighting the disease.
“Sometimes people have problems with transportation [for medical care],” she said. Sometimes there is a problem with paying co-pay.”
Brodderick Roary, a practice administrator at Rosedale Health and Wellness Center, says there are reasons why HIV is prevalent in the Black community.
“Lack of education, lack of access to health care resources where people live,” Roary said. “Here in the South, the Bible Belt, religion plays a huge part of that. Also stigma and homophobia as well.”
Roary is pleased with the more than $15 million the county has allocated to the fight against HIV, but says it’s not enough.
“We still need more,” Roary said. “And when I say we need more, we need more reference to the prevention of HIV. It’s great to invest money in care, but we also need to look at the prevention dollars. When I say prevention dollars, I’m talking about PrEP services, giving people access to PrEP.”
PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is a medication that can be taken daily, or as a long-acting injection, that reduces the risk of contracting HIV by as much as 99%,” according to HIV.gov.
“There’s a higher prevalence of HIV in the African American community, especially those men who have sex with men. And also, secondly, African American women,” Roary said. “[Some] women of color, especially African American women, they don’t think PrEP is for them. But, actually, PrEP is for them.”
Roary, who is African American, is living with HIV. She says she contracted HIV despite knowing the importance of safety.
“I was highly aware of protecting myself, but I fell in love,” Roary said. “And sometimes when you fall in love — not making any excuses — we let our guard down. And he was my only partner.”
Mecklenburg County's Valerie C. Woodard Center on Freedom Drive in west Charlotte is a county-funded site where locals can receive health services. Onsite is Johnny Wilson, the county’s program manager for the HIV and STI division.
Wilson says the county is reaching the goal of getting 75% of county residents who are 13 or older to be tested or screened for HIV, but there is a caveat.
“If you are not going to a site where we’re funded for or we’re partnered with, if you’re going to a primary care provider, we don’t have access to that information to monitor truly if everybody in Mecklenburg County is getting tested,” Wilson said.
Wilson says the county is also meeting the goal of increasing testing among African Americans by 75% by not solely relying on residents to come to them.
“So, that’s going out to the clubs, parties, promoters,” Wilson said. “We’re also going to high-priority ZIP codes and doing pop-up testing as well.”
According to Mecklenburg’s Public Health department, more than $12 million has been directed by the county to the “Getting to Zero” initiative that ties into the "Ending the HIV Epidemic” implementation plan, a national initiative to substantially reduce new HIV infections in the U.S., which focuses on heavily impacted communities. About $385,000 has also gone to minority aid initiatives. Close to $1 million has been spent on PrEP services and $900,000 has been allocated for expanding testing at Mecklenburg jail.
In addition to the services available, Wilson says a greater community effort is needed to help combat and reduce HIV.
“What we need help with is ensuring that the information is being passed along,” Wilson said. “If people are getting the right information [on HIV], we can reduce stigma.”
Janice Shirley, 62, runs a program called “Hope In the End” that supports people impacted by HIV and other challenges like housing insecurity.
“I’m HIV positive, I have depression, and I’m a recovering addict,” Shirley said.
Shirley has been clean for 23 years. She found out she had HIV in 2006, but says she didn’t know much about the virus until she was diagnosed.
“I didn’t think nothing much about it,” Shirley said. “It wasn’t like HIV was being said around in the community. I didn’t start hearing much about HIV until I was sitting in the meetings. When I say meetings, I mean NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings.”
Shirley was interviewed on a recent visit at the “Hope in the End” housing site, a men’s transitional house in an apartment complex in south Charlotte.
Shirley's transitional programming aims to make sure residents are informed about HIV and have access to resources. She connects residents with housing, Medicaid support, and food stamps.
“We’re human,” Shirley said. “Just because we have a diagnosis of HIV don’t make us no different than nobody else. We’re some of the doctors, we’re teachers. I’ve met them all in different walks of this life. You have children who were born with HIV.”
Nearby, two African American residents sit and watch TV. In a spare room that remains unoccupied, there’s a pink bed sheet cover. Shirley hopes that in the near future, those in need of aid, including HIV care, can fill that unoccupied space, one of the places in Mecklenburg, where people can get the support they need.
That’s part two of the WFAE series that looks at why HIV cases in Mecklenburg County disproportionately affect Black residents and the county and care providers' response to the infection. You can find part one here.
