HIV positive prostitute offers services at Cheyney U.

For the last few days it's been hard for Cheyney students to focus on calculus or Garcia Marquez, given the incessant buzz about an HIV-positive prostitute and her consorts on campus - and worse - the media attention its attracted.

On Thursday, Sakinah Kenyell Floyd, 35, of Upper Darby was charged with offering her services as a prostitute in two of Cheyney's dormitories.

Floyd, who is not a student at the university, had allegedly been seen running around nude on the sixth floor of Truth Hall, a Cheyney dormitory. According to the police report, two men interviewed had paid the woman $20 for oral sex. She told police she had sex with 10.

Floyd said she was HIV positive and was carrying prescription medication used to treat the virus.

As of yesterday, she was being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility on $30,000 bail, said Joseph Brielmann, spokesman for the Delaware County District Attorney's Office. "We are asking anybody in the public who has had contact with this woman to seek medical assistance and to assess their situation," Brielmann said.

Floyd's preliminary hearing will be on Thursday.

Rumors about how the prostitute got into the dorms, who the students are who had sex with her and whether or not they were using protection have been flying.

Several women said they had heard that the students were Cheyney football players.

But Darryl Wilkins, 17, who identified himself as a member of the team, said the reports were false.

Since it can take six weeks or more for the HIV antibodies to appear, said Rob Roy MacGregor, an infectious disease expert at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, students who do not test positive but had contact with the woman should take the prophylactic, then get retested.