Tulsa -
Health Outreach Prevention Education (HOPE) is observing National HIV Testing Day by offering free, walk-in rapid HIV tests Wednesday and Thursday.
HOPE offered the free rapid tests at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in the 600 block of East 4th Street Wednesday night from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Free walk-in rapid HIV tests are also being offered at HOPE's office at 3540 East 31st Street on Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Rapid HIV tests look for HIV antibodies, not the HIV virus, so they are accurate up to three months prior to the test. This is because it can take up to three months for the immune system to develop the antibodies after a possible exposure to HIV.
HOPE staff members use the Clearview® rapid tests with a 15-minute processing time.
Testing can be anonymous or confidential.
These rapid tests normally cost $30.
As of December 31, 2008, there were approximately 4,605 people living with HIV in Oklahoma.
"Even if you are in a faithful monogamous relationship, if both partners didn't get tested before that relationship then there is no guarantee of protection," HOPE Clinic Specialist Jeremy Simmons told KTUL.com.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care.
Nationally and worldwide, one out of every 100 people is infected with HIV. One out of five people infected with HIV in the U.S. is unaware that they have it. One-half of new HIV diagnoses occur in people under the age of 25.
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. People can contract the virus during unprotected sex or by sharing injection drug needles. Immunodeficiency is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious diseases has been compromised. An immune-compromised person may be particularly vulnerable to opportunistic infections, as well as to normal infections that could affect anyone.
HIV is spread through four body fluids—blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. In order for one person to transmit HIV to another person, there has to be a direct exchange of infected body fluids. When body fluids that contain HIV come into contact with air, the air dries those fluids and breaks up HIV very quickly.
HIV cannot be transmitted via mucus, pus, tears, or sweat. According to the CDC, no cases of HIV transmission have ever been documented as a result of these substances.
HIV can live in an air-tight hollow syringe for up to thirty days if blood is present.
The blood supply in the U.S. has been screened for HIV using nucleic-acid testing since late 1985. No blood donor has been given money for donating blood in the U.S. since 2003. Within the last eight years, there have been no reported cases of HIV transmission through blood transfusions in the U.S.
As with all viruses, HIV has no cure. Treatment is available, in the form of antiretroviral medications that limit the reproduction of the HIV virus. These medications have unknown long-term side-effects and can cost over $2000 per month.
HIV is the virus that can infect people. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a medical diagnosis most frequently given to HIV-positive people who have 200 or fewer CD4 white blood cells per cubic milliliter of blood. A normal CD4 count is 1000 CD4 white blood cells per cubic milliliter of blood. Not everyone who is HIV-positive is diagnosed with AIDS.
Abstinence is 100% effective in preventing the spread of HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs). Abstinence can refer to sexual activity, as well as to substance use—including alcohol.
Although many people tend to think of HIV as a gay disease, most new infections occur in people who self-identify as straight.
According to the CDC, the HIV infection rate in women is steadily rising. 280,000 women are living with HIV in the United States, comprising a quarter of all HIV infections. 75% of infected women nation-wide contract HIV through heterosexual, or straight, contact.
Women of color, particularly African American and African-born women, continued to have higher HIV infection rates compared to Caucasians in 2010 in Oklahoma.
According to AIDS United, 60% of new HIV infections occur in the southern states.
According to HOPE's Executive Director Kathy Williams, three Oklahoma counties account for the majority of current HIV cases in the state—Oklahoma County (27.7%), Tulsa County (23.0%), and Cleveland (11.3%). Tulsa County currently has an HIV positivity rate of 1%.
HOPE is a local non-profit organization that has served Tulsa and surrounding communities since 1998 by offering free, anonymous HIV and Hepatitis C testing and conducting outreach efforts in northeastern Oklahoma. HOPE also operates the only statewide Oklahoma HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STI) resource hotline, 800-535-AIDS (2437).
People who were unable to attend either testing events may still contact HOPE Testing at 918-749-TEST (8378) or info@hopetesting.org for clinic hours of operation.
