National HIV Testing Day: June 27, 2006
"National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is an annual campaign produced by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA-US) to encourage at-risk individuals to receive voluntary HIV counseling and testing. NAPWA distributes campaign kits to community groups and health departments of all sizes to help create NHTD campaigns and events targeting their local communities." For further information about HIV counseling and testing, please visit National Association of People With AIDS. This year's National HIV Testing Day is June 27, 2006.
It has been twenty-five years since the discovery of AIDS. Today, Washington, D.C. leads the country in the number of new AIDS cases, which are disproportionately high among black women. Health officials are recommending that all D.C. residents between the ages of 14 and 84 obtain the HIV test. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that approximately 40,000 persons become infected with HIV each year. NHTD events will include health fairs, community and media outreach, and extended hours for testing facilities. To learn more about National HIV Testing Day and locate an HIV testing site, visit the CDC website.
In the current issue of Morbidity and Mortality, a weekly publication from the CDC, results from the Advancing HIV Prevention initiative of 2003 to reduce the number of individuals with undiagnosed HIV infection were published. According to these results, many more people were able to be screened because of greater availability of the tests and same day results. Conventional HIV testing requires clients to return two weeks later to obtain test results, close to one-third of whom never return for results or to begin treatment. Researchers from the CDC concluded that, "The findings in this report suggest that HIV testing might be increased by using rapid tests and that RTDP might have enabled diagnosis of HIV infection in persons who would not have known their HIV status otherwise."