Elon recognizes World AIDS Day

This World AIDS Day a line of Elon students are waiting timidly in upstairs Mosely for the results from their free HIV tests. Brenda Beam, the program director for the non-profit HIV awareness organization, Alamance Cares, bustles in and out of room 211, calling students in for the final verdict. 

The theme for this year’s AIDS day is universal access to testing and care, a goal that Alamance Cares is helping to fulfill.

“This year’s theme is pretty vague,” said Beam. “I think it applies more to international healthcare in countries like Africa and places who have trouble treating HIV.”

For ten years Beam has spent AIDS day speaking to students at places like Alamance County College and Elon University about what they can do to prevent contracting the HIV virus, in addition to administering confidential tests. Even when it’s not a nationally recognized day, Alamance Cares tries to visit Elon once a month. 

“I’d really like to see ourselves out of a job,” Beam said. “We go to middle school’s and colleges hoping that kids will catch on to the ways we can prevent this sickness.”

In Moseley, Beam is busy swiping student mouths for mucosa, the moist tissue that lines a person’s mouth, nasal passages, and organs.  The test takes twenty minutes to process, and looks a lot like a standard, over-the-counter pregnancy test. A single red line appears if the test is negative, and two lines appear if the person is likely to have HIV. According to Beam the test is 99% accurate.

Still, sometimes the test can come back inconclusive, or what the technicians call reactive. This requires a full-fledged follow up test, involving blood drawing and testing.

For this step the organization recommends students to local hospitals, since the employees at Alamance Cares do not all have their own nursing licenses.

“If the test is positive, we get students in touch with physicians in Chapel Hill or the Alamance County who can start them on a treatment plan,” Beam said.

The state pays for the HIV swab tests, as well as the salaries of the people who work at Alamance Cares. The organization is also raising money for World AIDS Day by cutting deals with local restaurants in Burlington. A portion of the money made at the Blue Ribbon Diner and Chiles restaurants tonight will go to their cause.

Overall Beam felt like today was a productive day for HIV awareness. “We had about 30 students come in thanks to the advertising done by Dr. Sullivan’s class,” Beam said. “We’ve tested over 800 people this whole year.”

Dr. Sullivan is an Elon emeritus who led the human services’ senior seminar class in spreading word about World AIDS day. Last night students hosted a concert by Sweet Signatures in the Irazu coffee shop, where they played informative games and passed out condoms.

“We’re starting to see a change. These days we have almost eliminated HIV among children with newer medicine and better knowledge,” Beam said.

Alamance Cares is located on 2732 Anne Elizabeth Dr., a quick turn off of Huffman Mill Road at the Starbucks Coffee shop.

For more information about Alamance Cares go to their website: Alamancecares.com