National HIV Testing Day

Welcome to this installment of The AIDS Pandemic. June 27, 2010 is National HIV Testing Day. For many people, this news probably is met with ambivalence. We have a day for everything, it seems. So here it is - another day with another name. We shouldn't, though, link National HIV Testing Day with the made-by-Hallmark days. This day should be different.

On National HIV Testing Day, we all should remind ourselves of the vital role testing plays in our continuing efforts to rid the world of HIV/AIDS. According to the CDC, 1.1 million Americans are infected with HIV. Approximately 1 in 5, however, do not know they are infected. This needs to change. When one knows his or her HIV status, he or she is less likely to transmit the virus. Knowing one's status can lead to earlier treatment, and earlier treatment results in better outcomes. For women, knowing one's status can help decrease the rate of mother to child transmission.

National HIV Testing Day is more than just a day marked on the calendar. This day is a reminder to all of us that testing, along with education and prevention, are necessary and interlocked components of our ongoing efforts against this pandemic.

So how can one get tested? Use this helpful testing locator, provided by aids.gov. And tell your friends.

National HIV Testing Day

Welcome to this install of The AIDS Pandemic, a podcast hosted by Dr. David Wessner of Davidson College. I’m Dave Wessner.

June 27 is the 15th annual National HIV Testing Day, an event sponsored by the National Association of People with AIDS to encourage people to get tested and learn their HIV status. Today, I had the pleasure of participating in a Webinar hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about this important event.

During this Webinar, we were reminded of the CDC’s new recommendations about HIV testing – all individuals between the ages of 13 and 64 should be tested routinely on an opt-out basis. In other words, testing for HIV should be included in normal health care, unless a person specifically asks not to be tested. The reasons for this recommendation are several-fold. Most importantly, a majority of new infections result from transmission of the virus from an individual who does not know his or her HIV status and studies have shown that if people know their status, they tend to modify their behavior to reduce the risk of transmission. So increased testing should lead to decreased transmission rates.

Of course, there are important issues that need to be addressed. How can we reach underserved populations, including the homeless and uninsured? How can we reach young people? How will the costs of the test and necessary follow-up counseling be absorbed by our health care system? Despite these obstacles, though, the goal of universal, routine testing is admirable. I encourage everyone to get tested.

More information about National HIV Testing Day can be found at www.hivtest.org. This site contains information about HIV testing and has an easy to use test center finder. Simply type in your zip code and a list of local testing sites will be provided.

As the CDC testing campaign slogan states: Take the Test. Take Control.

Until next time, I’m Dave Wessner