By Karisse Carmack

Special to The Sentinel

Marvelyn Brown was a Nashville, Tenn. teenager who met her "Prince Charming" while still in high school. She considered herself athletic, attractive and her future seemed bright.

Living with HIV was not in those future plans.

Brown, now 24, wants to share her personal journey in her new autobiography The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, and (HIV) Positive with Courtney E. Martin, due out in bookstores on Aug. 19.

"I was a normal teenager who was invincible and felt nothing could touch me," Brown said in an Aug. 11 e-mail interview. "HIV was not an issue or concern until I was diagnosed with the virus."

Based on 2006 estimates the Centers for Disease Control reported that blacks represented 83.7 percent of new HIV infections per 100,000 people, compared to Hispanics at 29.3 percent and whites at 11.5 percent. American Indians and Asians represented 14.6 percent and 10.3 percent of new cases per 100,000, respectively.

In the estimates that were also published in the Aug. 3 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, African-American men and women, as well as "gay and bisexual men of all races and ethnicities," are the groups who "were most affected by HIV."

Prince George's County is not immune to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Based on a 2007 report from the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the region is second in the state in HIV and AIDS cases. Blacks represented 88 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in the county, compared to whites at 10 percent and Latinos at 4 percent.

Overall Maryland ranks third with the most number of reported AIDS cases in the United States, according to Prince George's County Health Officer Donald Shell in an e-mail statement.

Despite the information and resources available, there are people who are still not getting the message.

"Most persons know about HIV and AIDS; having that information does not necessarily translate into behavior change," said Shell, who is also the HIV Program Chief for the Prince George's County Health Department.

"Many people don't see themselves at-risk because they don't identify themselves as belonging to the traditional high-risk groups previously targeted for prevention programs," Shell said.

"I think that it's still painful for people to think that this disease is one that can possibly affect them," Brown said.

"Sadly, I think far too many of us believe that it is safer to live in denial and ignorance," she continued. "People need to understand that having unprotected sex is like playing Russian Roulette with your life."

Brown said in a press release that she contracted HIV from her boyfriend and did not know much about the disease when she was 19. Upon her diagnosis, she was shunned by members of her community.

However, Brown said the disease has taught her to love herself.

"Believe it or not, my diagnosis has changed my life for the better," Brown said. "I now love myself for who I am and what I was. I now have ultimate self-acceptance and I do not look for it anywhere or in anyone else."

Now living in New York, Brown has become a motivational speaker who has been featured on BET, MTV, The Tavis Smiley Show and on CNN's Black in America series, according to her official Web site.

Recently, Brown was at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City from Aug. 3-8 to share her story and learn about the Black AIDS Institute's report on HIV/AIDS in black America, which said that America's effort to curb HIV/AIDS abroad lags behind its efforts to do the same at home.

In addition to traveling around the world speaking to audiences about her cautionary tale, Brown will promote her new book, which goes into further detail about her experiences as a young woman with HIV.

Brown said in her official blog that she never thought she would ever write a book.

"The process was very difficult and painful one, but the end result was so worth it. I feel like I have just given the world the key to my diary," Brown said via e-mail. "Rather than disclosing secrets, I'm opening up and hopefully educating readers how to best protect themselves and live long, healthy lives."

The motivational speaker said in the future she hopes to go back to school, get married and have a family. She hopes people will learn some life lessons after reading the book.

"I want readers to take back control of their lives," Brown said. "To love themselves no matter what and to live healthy."

Shell advises people who are either infected with the disease or have friends and loved ones with HIV/AIDS to obtain access to quality health care so they can avoid infecting their partners and to prolong their quality of life.

Free and confidential HIV counseling is available to county residents who want to know their treatment options and how to tell sex partners and people one has shared needles with about their HIV status.

The Prince George's County Health Department offers free HIV testing at the Cheverly Health Center in Cheverly and at Prince George's Community College in Largo. The tests are confidential, no appointment is necessary and walk-ins are welcome. For more information, call 301-583-7752 or TDD 301-925-5167.