About a quarter of Americans who have HIV don’t know it. With a makeshift tent and a 10-minute, finger-prick test, health professionals Wednesday tried to change that.
As part of a day-long series of events getting the word out about HIV and AIDS, Gretchen Raffa (pictured) and a crew from Planned Parenthood set up a station among the Indiana Jones tents on the New Haven Green, offering free HIV tests to those who passed by.
As part of National HIV Testing Day, Planned Parenthood served a small but steady stream of curious passersby Wednesday afternoon. Thanks to a new test, those who wanted to know their status could stop in and get results in a jiffy. (Click here for info on HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it).
Clients were welcomed into a tent and briefed before taking the test. What is your recent sexual history? Do you have a network of support in the case that the test comes out positive? Are you prepared for results either way?
The procedure itself is painless: A pin prick on the finger. A couple drops of blood onto a testing kit, popped into a cooler. Then a 10-minute wait.
The new test — Uni-Gold Recombigen HIV test — is quick in another way, too: The window of time between when you get infected and when the test shows your status is shorter.
The traditional Western Blot test detects antibodies only three months after infection by the HIV virus, so after risky behavior like using dirty needles, having unprotected sex or being exposed to blood, you have to wait three months to see if that behavior landed you with the virus. Uni-Gold can be taken after just 25 days, Raffa explained.
For some, the short visit paid off with relief — out of the cooler came a test kit showing the line “control”, which means no signs of HIV. If the line falls otherwise, the clinic is there to jump in with early treatment.
The city health department was on the job as well, driving to neighborhoods in a van, offering free HIV tests (in addition to running its pioneering needle-exchange program). Matt Lopes (pictured), the health department’s HIV director, said a lot more needs to be done.
“Twenty-five percent of the people who have been infected are walking around without knowing it, which is scary,” said Lopes, speaking in the basement of Immanuel Baptist Church, where the Connecticut HIV Prevention Community Planning Group was holding a day-long “community day” getting the word out on HIV services.
“We need to know who these people are,” said Lopes, so they can get treatment and stop unwittingly passing on the virus. “We’re trying to find that 25 percent, even the undocumented, which is a big population” living with HIV. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people across the nation get infected with HIV each year.
The city health clinic at 54 Meadow St. offers confidential or anonymous HIV testing and counseling. Bicultural/bilingual counselors are available at 946‑6453. Planned Parenthood also offers STD/HIV testing at its Whitney Avenue clinic.
