Today Is National HIV Testing Day. Do You Know If You Should Be Tested?

Today is National HIV Testing Day. Do you know if you should be tested for HIV? Do you already know you should be tested, but you've been putting it off?

Today is the day to get all of your questions about HIV testing answered. I think the most important thing to ask yourself is...Do I need to be tested? Here are the questions you should be asking yourself...

Have you injected drugs or steroids or shared equipment (such as needles, syringes, works) with others?

Have you had unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with men who have sex with men, multiple partners, or anonymous partners?

Have you exchanged sex for drugs or money?

Have you been diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis, tuberculosis (TB), or a sexually transmitted disease (STD), like syphilis?

Have you had unprotected sex with someone who could answer yes to any of the above questions?

Did you know the CDC recommends that all pregnant women be tested?

HIV testing during pregnancy is important because antiviral therapy can improve the mother’s health and greatly lower the chance that an HIV-infected pregnant woman will pass HIV to her infant before, during, or after birth. The treatment is most effective for babies when started as early as possible during pregnancy. However, there are still great health benefits to beginning treatment even during labor or shortly after the baby is born.

CDC recommends HIV screening for all pregnant women because risk-based testing (when the health care provider offers an HIV test based on the provider’s assessment of the pregnant woman’s risk) misses many women who are infected with HIV.

Here is what other bloggers are saying...

From Empower Her...

The latest data on HIV infection across 33 states finds new diagnoses jumping by 12 percent annually between 2001 and 2006 among young gay and bisexual men.

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the rise is "especially concerning" for young black men aged 13 to 24 who have sex with men. For this group, the annual rate of new HIV diagnoses rose by 15 percent annually, compared to a 9 percent and an 8 percent annual rise among their white and Hispanic peers, respectively.

Jessica Thomas from Beauty News NYC

Move over Brad and Angelina, Jack and Heather are the “it” couple of the moment. And, no, we aren’t talking about Jack Black or Jack Nicholson, for that matter, or Heather Locklear. Project Runway Season 5’s Jack Mackenroth and 12-time Emmy nominated actress, Heather Tom, from The Bold & the Beautiful, have teamed up to raise AIDS awareness through couture fashion.
Mackenroth designed the burnout silk gown for Tom, who wore it to the Daytime Emmy Awards on June 20. The dress will be auctioned off in conjunction with National HIV Testing Day on June 27 to raise money for three AIDS charities.This is special not just to Mackenroth, who is afflicted with the disease, but to Tom as well. She has been involved with AIDS awareness and fund-raising since she began her career on television.

From Tony Cox Community Fund Blog...

Without proper outreach, an agency’s services are not known to the very community that is in need of them. This reaches to the very core as to why the Tony Cox Community Fund is more important that ever before.

Providing unrestricted marketing funds is completely unheard of (I mean come on, when was the last time your department of health said here is some money, do whatever marketing you want), but that is exactly what TCCF does!! Through the use of these unrestricted marketing funds, agencies produce and market public education campaigns that promote their services and/or a fundraising event. These HIV/AIDS fundraising events usually collect money for the agency while also providing free HIV/AIDS testing, education, and outreach to the community. This double pronged approach to community service provides the perfect opportunity for ASOs to fundraise while continuing to provide direct services to community members in need.

National HIV/Testing Day, National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, World AIDS Day, and other “National Days” are the perfect time to shine a spotlight on educating the public that HIV is still out there, that it still does not discriminate in who it infects, and that, at the current time, education is our only vaccine.

Also See:

National HIV Testing Day

June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. The National Association of People with AIDS is the lead for this day.

An estimated 250,000 people in the United States have HIV and are not aware of it. National HIV Testing Day is an opportunity for people nationwide to learn their HIV status, and to gain knowledge to take control of their health and their lives.

National HIV and STD Testing Resources

AIDS.gov Blog

HealthLine

Just That

Out-Raged.org is a Web 2.0 grassroots community of concerned individuals who share news from across the web about the GLBT community and work together to combat the discrimination they see. The site is designed to allow users a way to organize and combat obvious issues of discrimination, particularly in the private sphere, that might otherwise not see a public response.

Did you know today was National HIV Testing Day? Have you blogged about it? What would you tell someone who knows they should be tested, but is feeling apprehensive?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan at catherine-morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

Submitted by Catherine Morgan (view blog

) on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 01:23