Ahead of National HIV Testing Day on Sunday, Atlanta is hosting an HIV testing event today at City Hall. Private rooms throughout the city complex will be used to conduct free rapid screenings provided through National AIDS Education and Services for Minorities. Mayor Kasim Reed is hosting the event, and participating partners include Aid Atlanta, the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS of Metro Atlanta, several local churches, and CDC.
"We want everybody to know that HIV testing calls us all to action," said Robert Bailey, team leader for CDC's National HIV Prevention Partnerships. "HIV testing is key to ending the US epidemic."
More than 1 million people in the United States have HIV, but about 20 percent do not realize they are infected, Bailey said. People with HIV who are unaware of their serostatus account for 54-70 percent of all new transmissions, he said. "Doesn't matter if one person or a million show up. We are going to continue to drive home the point that HIV testing is key to ending the epidemic," he said.
While African Americans represent 30 percent of Georgia's population, 70 percent of new Georgia AIDS cases in 2006 were among blacks.
"Typically, we know that that is primarily because of the lack of information on HIV due to stigma and [lack of] access to care," said Neena Smith-Bankhead, director of education and volunteer services at Aid Atlanta.
For more information about testing events, visit www.hivtest.org or www.actagainstaids.org; telephone 1-800-CDC-INFO; or text "knowit" to 566948.
06/23/10
GEORGIA: Atlanta to Offer HIV Tests Today
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution:: Ernie Suggs; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention