Those were busy days, too many HIV positive new diagnosis weekly. Our focus was twofold: offer antibody test and counseling to people at risk for infection and connecting them to medical, behavioral, and drug/alcohol programs.
We targeted IVDU shooting galleries, needle exchange programs, street sex workers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, etc.
Today is National HIV Testing Day. Thanks to COVID-19, most of the community based sites that the Department of Health funds were shut down for safety reasons at the end of March. Some of these agencies had to reinvent themselves, and now are offering at-home HIV testing. The new campaign is called "Life as We Know It".
Today, Saturday June 27, 2020, (National HIV Testing day), some agencies are hosting a Facebook Live conversation at 1:00 pm on topics including at-home testing and reducing stigma.
My only concern about this new initiative, is that people who are homeless experience higher rates of HIV infection. Homeless individuals who engage in IVDU shooting galleries, and street workers exchanging sex for money will not be able to access at-home HIV testing. When a person is homeless, they have a more difficult time staying in HIV care and adhering to HIV medications, and experience worse health outcomes as a result of HIV infection.
Maybe Community Health Centers in Philadelphia should follow the Stable Genius suggestion :
“If you don’t test, you don’t have any cases. If we stopped testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” — Trump said at a June 15 roundtable discussion at the White House.
[ The picture on the bottom of this post, is a small display of AIDS Memorial Quilts at the Philadelphia AIDS Walk taken in 2010. ]
Discuss.
No comments:
Post a Comment