TUESDAY, Nov. 29, 2011 — When’s the last time you were tested for HIV?
If you’re like most Americans, the answer is “never,” according to Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.
In fact, nearly 240,000 people in the United States living with HIV don’t even know it — that’s about one in every five Americans with the disease. And according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of new infections (about 56,000 cases each year in the United States) are passed on by people who don’t know their HIV status.
The CDC recommends that every American get tested at least once — and that people at higher risk (those who have sex with multiple partners, with an HIV-positive sexual partner, or who inject drugs) get tested once every year.
Sure, you can get a routine HIV exam by going to your doctor or stopping by a local testing center (many of these sites even offer free counseling if the results are positive). But lately, some nonprofits are getting creative about making it easier for people to get tested wherever they are — including while waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles and shopping for clothes.
Here’s a look at some unexpected places to get an HIV test.
The DMV: If you live in the Washington, D.C., area and you’re due for a driver’s license renewal, you can pass the time — and benefit your health — by getting a free HIV test. The rapid oral swab exam (results are available in about 20 minutes) is performed right there at the DMV, in a private office. As an added bonus, people who get tested also receive a $7 discount on their DMV bill.
This inventive program is the brainchild of the nonprofit organization Family and Medical Counseling Service Inc., which uses the DMV (a place where most adults are bound to visit at some point — whether it’s to change their address or pay a traffic ticket) as its home base. "You have to meet people where they are," Sheila Brockington, who works with the program at the DMV office in southeast Washington, told USA Today. "You're waiting anyway. You might as well."
And it seems to be working. Since the program started last October, more than 5,000 DMV visitors have been tested for HIV and about 25 to 35 people get tested every day, according to Angela Wood, head of Family and Medical Counseling Service. Believe it or not, she had the idea while she was waiting in line at the DMV. HIV testing is currently only available at the DMV in Washington — the city with highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the country — but the program recently received a grant for growth and is currently expanding into food stamp registration offices.
A thrift shop: For every dollar spent at Out of the Closet, a chain of thrift stores with 22 locations in California and Florida, about 96 cents goes to the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), according to the shop’s general manager Jonathon Kreuyer. But beyond simply donating funds to HIV/AIDS, the chain is also helping promote awareness by offering free HIV tests to shoppers, who receive results in 20 minutes and are offered free counseling.
The idea “was to make it like an impulse buying practice where people see the sign and it’s instant; where you don’t have to think about it, you just get tested and know your status," Kreuyer told Edge Boston.
Out of the Closet isn’t the only HIV-fighting thrift shop out there; Housing Works in New York City (another AIDS advocacy organization that raises money through its thrift stores) also offers rapid HIV tests.
Church: Because of the unfortunate stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, church may be the last place you think of for HIV testing. But New York City’s Metropolitan Community Church — which serves a predominantly gay and lesbian community — is trying to change that.
Since April, the place of worship has been offering free rapid HIV tests seven days a week, either a blood test or an oral swab. If they test positive, church-goers will be directed to get health care through the reduced-cost health center, the William M. Ryan Community Health Network. And the Metropolitan Community Church isn’t alone; more churches across the country are offering free HIV tests.
- A mobile van: Union Positiva , a Florida-based HIV/AIDS organization funded by the CDC, is bringing HIV tests out of the doctor’s office and into moving vehicles. The fully-equipped vans allow people to get free, rapid, and confidential HIV exams at regular and non-traditional hours. Other mobile testing centers exist across the nation; to find one near you, go to FreeHIVTest.net.
Your bathroom. You can also test yourself for HIV in the comfort of your own home. DIY HIV exams, such as the Home Access HIV-1 Test System (which is FDA-approved and can be bought online or at many drugstores), involve pricking your finger with a needle, placing a few drops of blood on the blotter pad, and then mailing it to a lab. You receive results within seven days.
It’s not as quick as a rapid exam (and there’s a cost; it’s $44), but at home-tests have one major plus — a lot more privacy.