Deanna Talamantez
“People are not getting tested and there’s a lot more people out there who are sexually active who probably should be tested,” said Beth Benne, R.N., director of the student health center, of the need for HIV testing. As such, students can receive free and anonymous HIV testing at the Health Center during Pierce College’s biannual AIDS/HIV awareness week.
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), according to www.thewellproject.org, and is most commonly spread by sexual contact with an infected person or through contact with needles used by an infected person, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control Web site.
Throughout AIDS/HIV awareness week, there’s free and anonymous testing at the health center.
Walk-ins++++ for testing are welcome on Monday, March 27, from 2 to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, March 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Wednesday, March 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Thursday, March 30, from 2 to 6 p.m. Appointments are recommended.
Testing requires no needles and no blood. According to Benne, an oral probe is put down in the base of the cheek, between the gum and the cheek.
An outside agency will do the testing in order to maintain confidentiality. Results will be given in one week.
To support awareness, Being Alive, a group comprised of HIV/AIDS patients, will come into the classroom to speak about what it’s like living with HIV/AIDS.
“It’s wonderful for them to come in and talk to the classes and they come from all walks of life,” Benne said.
“Some of them are homosexuals, some of them are heterosexuals, all different ethnic backgrounds, gender…the message being, ‘anyone can get infected and please be safe.'”
Teachers have been notified about the testing, its dates, and have a request for the speaker’s bureau in their mailboxes, according to Benne.
She recommends that while waiting for the results, it’s important to abstain from sexual contact or practice safer sexual behavior. Not as many students get tested as Benne would like.
“Historically, Pierce has been well below the national average but you have to take into consideration that I am not getting many people,” Benne said.
From 18,000 students, only a small number are getting tested; students who are usually practicing safe behaviors and are just “making sure.”
“The bottom line is not a lot of people want to do this and it’s very frustrating, I think we were lucky to test a 100 people last fall.”
Each year, approximately 40,000 Americans are infected with HIV. In 2003, about 1 million people in the U.S. were infected; 24 to 27 percent were undiagnosed and unaware that they were living with HIV/AIDS.
The estimated number of AIDS cases for 15 to 19 year olds was 326 and 1,788 cases for 20 to 24 year olds, according to the CDC HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report: HIV Infection and AIDS in the United States, 2004. Overall deaths among all ages reached about 15,798.
The rate of the infection has decreased and the prognosis has improved because of the medication, according to Benne.
“I think the impact has diminished because young people have heard HIV since you were born, it has been around, not nearly as many people are dying,” she said.
As people learn more about HIV, “I think the public has been saturated with information on it and I think its lost its impact,” which results in diminishing numbers of students interested in HIV/AIDS, Benne explained.
“There’s a lot of stuff involved behind an individual’s decision to practice safer sex or to even get tested. And denial is huge.”
Free and anonymous testing will also be given on Tuesday, April 18, from 3 to 7 p.m. and on Monday, May 15, from 9 a.m. to noon.