INDIANAPOLIS - The 2008 INShape Indiana Black & Minority Health Fair will, for the first time, include an HIV Pavilion focused entirely on HIV education and free confidential testing.

 

The Indiana State Department of Health wants to encourage all Hoosiers, especially those in the Black and minority communities, to know their status and get tested.

 

"One of our biggest challenges is educating the public about chronic, life threatening conditions," says Indiana State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe, M.D.  "Now is the time to remove the stigma associated with having HIV/AIDS. Testing is the only way to know your status."

 

More than 9,168 Hoosiers currently live with HIV/AIDS, and, while Blacks only make up eight percent of the population, they account for nearly 35 percent of all Indiana residents with HIV disease.

 

To educate and encourage Blacks, specifically women, to get tested, Sheryl Lee Ralph, an award-winning veteran of film and television, is bringing her one-woman production, "Sometimes I Cry: The loves, lives, and losses of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS" to the 2008 INShape Indiana Black & Minority Health Fair.

 

The original "Deena" in the landmark Broadway production of Dreamgirls will give a free performance at the Indiana Repertory Theatre on Friday, July 18.  The show will begin at 7:30 p.m., and tickets for general admission into the performance will be available in the HIV Pavilion while supplies last.

 

Sheryl Lee Ralph's performance is sponsored by the Office of Women's Health at the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Minority Health Coalition.

 

For more information, go to www.statehealth.in.gov and click on the INShape Indiana Black & Minority Health Fair logo.

 

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