Health care workers see diverse crowd show up for HIV Testing Day

ALBANY – Throughout Thursday morning and afternoon a steady stream of people lined up for a free HIV screening at the North Slappey Boulevard Walgreens pharmacy during an event meant to raise awareness about the disease.

“We have had a diverse crowd; young adults, older (people), male, female,” said Dedrick Thomas, a case manager with the Southwest Health District based in Albany. “We’ve had whole families.”

The finger-stick tests gave results within minutes to participants at the screenings which coincided with National HIV Testing Day. Anyone whose test indicated positive for HIV would be referred to have confirmation testing done.

The health district is trying to promote testing as a part of regular health examinations and help dispel the stigma of HIV/AIDS with the annual event.

In addition to the screenings, health care workers answered questions and handed out informational literature and safer-sex kits.

Albany — and the Southern United States as a whole — has in recent years had higher rates of new infections than the rest of the country.

Southern states, with about 37 percent of the country’s population, account for about 44 percent of all U.S. residents living with an HIV diagnosis, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The black population has been particularly hard hit and accounted for 54 percent of new HIV diagnoses in 2014.

Eight out of 10 states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses are in the South, as are the top 10 metropolitan statistical areas in the country.

One in seven people infected with HIV are not aware of their status.

Khadigah Shealey-Florence, who was waiting in line for screening on Thursday, said the tests are part of her routine because of her work.

“I’m a phlebotomist, so I just do it for awareness,” she said. “I do it all the time. I just took one in May, May the 10th.”

The tests are not invasive, Shealey-Florence said, but for some there may be a stigma attached to the disease.

“I would say that people are scared of the test result,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt, just a finger stick.”

During the 2018 testing event 242 people were screened. Numbers for Thursday’s screening were not available as of the middle of Thursday afternoon.

Alan Mauldin
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Alan Mauldin
[email protected]AlanMauldin[email protected]
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f714026fc83d6150ab9a4350b4169940?s=100&d=mm&r=g