The Student Health Center will offer free, anonymous HIV testing tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. as part of a city-wide program to get all D.C. residents tested for HIV.
"In conjunction with the D.C. Department of Health Administration for HIV Policy and Programs, the Student Health Center is piloting periodic, free, anonymous HIV testing," said Dan Bruey, director of the Student Health Center, in an e-mail.
Pilots will be conducted throughout November and December, he said.
"The Student Health Center will continue to explore ways to provide free HIV testing if the funding from the District decreases," he said.
Students should expect about a 30-minute wait for results after the test is complete, said Ravenna Motil-McGuire, Director of HIV/AIDS Outreach for the Women's Initiative, in an e-mail.
Post-test counseling will be available, according to Bruey. Testing will also be available Nov. 29 and 30 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Other universities in D.C. are also involved in the program, according to Cliff Roberson, communications officer with the D.C. Department of Health HIV Policy and Program Administration.
Howard University Hospital offers routine HIV testing for all students, patients and staff, according to United Press International. It is the first hospital in the country to offer this type of testing, according to UPI.
"Howard has a very aggressive program," Roberson said.
Georgetown University also began a "Know Your Status" campaign last spring and re-introduced it in October, according to The Hoya, Georgetown's student newspaper.
Free testing is available at various locations throughout the District. Three clinics in Northwest, including the Elizabeth Taylor Center of the Walker-Whitman Clinic, Clinical Del Pueblo and Washington Free Clinic, offer free testing but request a donation. This summer, the D.C. DOH launched a campaign to get all District residents between the ages of 14 and 84 tested for HIV, according to The Washington Post.
The city had 80,000 tests, which they wanted to be distributed by the end of the year. This would have reached one-fifth of the residents of the District, according to The Post.
The D.C. DOH's Administration for HIV Policy and Programs first approached the Health Center about the program, Bruey said. The Student Health Center then began working with the Women's Initiative to provide students the opportunity for free testing, he said.
Motil-McGuire said Women's Initiative has wanted to bring free HIV testing to fruition this year because it is an important issue to people at AU.
"It's an issue that's very important to our generation," she said. "People are far more likely to respond to things like this when they're free. So, we just wanted to encourage testing and make it as convenient as possible for people to partake of it."
Since the testing is done anonymously, students cannot schedule a particular testing time. However, they will advertise the testing dates ahead of time through e-mail, campus posters and campus media, Motil-McGuire said.
The Health Center is using the OraQuick Advance test, which uses a saliva swab or a small blood sample to test for the presence of HIV antibodies, according to information from test manufacturer OraSure Technologies.
If a student tests positive for HIV, they will have access to counseling and other services, said Motil-McGuire.
Women's Initiative and the Health Center will begin the testing program with a series of HIV education sessions this month. They will hold the first session today from 5 to 7 p.m. Two additional sessions will occur on Nov. 29 and 30. While they will encourage participants to get tested at the sessions, it is not a requirement, she said.
D.C. has the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country, according to The Washington Post. There were 943 new cases of HIV in 2002.
Alan Boswell, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and co-leader of an Alternative Spring Break to study HIV and AIDS in the District, said these tests are "crucial" in the effort to stop the spread of AIDS.
"No matter how bad the HIV/AIDS epidemic gets, the important thing to remember is that the disease is preventable," he said in an e-mail. "Prevention is very difficult if those who have the disease do not even know about their own infection, continuing to live as if they did not have a deadly virus which can be passed on to others. Free HIV testing is in fact way overdue."
Sereena Hamm, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-leader of the Alternative Break trip, said the testing is beneficial because AIDS clinics in the District are overwhelmed by the high rate of infection.
"It could only be beneficial that any organization with the capability provide testing services," she said.
