CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Stand up and be counted. That’s what Jeri Duckwyler’s mother would always tell her. Make something of yourself. Do something with your life.

After turning 18 and moving from Charleston to New York, though, Duckwyler started doing the things her mother had warned her against. She took drugs – heroin and cocaine. She injected so much cocaine in her leg so many times it nearly had to be amputated. She shared beds and needles with men she didn’t know.

After returning to Charleston years later, Duckwyler went for routine blood work and tested positive for HIV.

“I kept asking, ‘What does this mean?’” Duckwyler recalled. “I said, ‘Am I going to die today? Am I going to die next week?’”

Duckwyler is one of hundreds of West Virginians living with HIV, which often leads to AIDS. In 2007 alone, 55 were diagnosed with HIV.

Although black West Virginians such as Duckwyler make up only 3 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for 36 percent of the state’s reported HIV cases since 1990 and 20 percent of the state’s AIDS cases, according to a new state HIV/AIDS report.

What’s more, 30 percent of West Virginians with the HIV infection over the past 17 years were women.

Nationally, HIV/AIDS has emerged as the leading cause of death among black women ages 25 to 44, and it’s one of the top three causes of death for black men ages 25 to 34, said Amy Weintraub, Covenant House’s director.

“People must get themselves tested for HIV, and if they are positive, they need to start treatment,” Weintraub said. “A few key steps taken individually can have a vast impact in the fight against AIDS in the African-American community.”

Duckwyler, 56, receives support from Covenant House, a Charleston-based nonprofit agency that runs a financial assistance program for more than 300 people in 22 Southern West Virginia counties, helping HIV-positive men and women with rent, utilities and medication costs.

“The purpose is to keep people in safe and stable housing,” said Hannah Koster, an AIDS program director at Covenant House. “Everybody is enrolled in our program for life.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the spread of HIV/AIDS is the deadliest epidemic in human history, killing more than 25 million people worldwide, including more than 500,000 Americans. An estimated 40,000 people in the United States become infected with HIV every year.

In West Virginia, about 750 state residents have died from AIDS since 1984. Seven West Virginians with AIDS died last year.

Duckwyler now spreads the word about how to slow the spread of the virus. She speaks to students about HIV at area schools. Her prevention advice: Don’t use drugs, and practice safe sex.

She also passes out condoms from her house on Charleston’s East End to youth in the neighborhood.

“I just talk to them straight,” Duckwyler said. “Just how drugs just don’t work, and don’t be thinking you can just jump in bed with anyone.”

Duckwyler takes two prescription pills a day to keep the HIV virus in check. The only time she worries about her health is when she gets a bad case of pneumonia.

Lately, she’s been thinking of writing a book about her life – the ups and downs. Her working title: “Saved by the Grace.”

She wants more people to know her, to learn from her mistakes, to realize that HIV isn’t a death sentence.

God saved her for a good reason, she said.

“Some of the kids listen,” Duckwyler said. “If I can help 10 out of 1,000, I think I’ve done something. You’ve got to stand up and be counted.”