National HIV Testing Day: Tomorrow, Somebody Will Test Positive for the HIV Virus. Local Health Officials Want That Person and All Others Who Face the Prospect of Developing AIDS to Know the Disease is Now Treatable ? but the First Step is Getting Tested.
Posted on: Monday, 26 June 2006, 12:00 CDT
By Robbyn Brooks, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
Jun. 26--An estimated 40,000 people test positive for HIV each year. Slightly more than 200 of those positive results have come back in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties already this year.
"That number (40,000) has stayed steady and there's a shift by the CDC to make testing become routine," said Jeff Rascon, program coordinator for the Okaloosa County Health Department's Ryan White Title III Clinic.
Rascon said the clinic is seeing more and more people come in and be diagnosed with Human Immune Deficiency Virus after they have already had the disease for years.
Rascon said those patients are usually already showing heavy symptoms and end up developing AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) quickly as opposed to the years it would take if they were properly monitored and medicated.
"HIV disease is now treatable," Rascon said. "It's very treatable if you know your status."
Both the Health Department and OASIS (Okaloosa Aids Support and Information Services) offer free and anonymous testing to everyone.
"It's a deadly disease, we don't want to keep spreading it," said Rachel Bauer with OASIS. "We don't ask names or anything."
After a short pre-test counseling, the test itself only takes three minutes and is completely painless. A volunteer simply uses a mouth swab to take a sample.
Then in about two weeks, the results are available at OASIS.
Whatever the outcome, OASIS offers counseling on either how to cope and live with HIV, or how someone can reduce their risk of catching the disease.
The Health Department's testing is very similar. If someone wants to be checked for other sexually transmitted diseases, blood will be drawn for a different kind of test. Sometimes there is a charge for that service.
"Knowing you are in the clear is empowering," Bauer said. "A lot of people say 'that's a load off.' " Staff Writer Robbyn Brooks can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 432
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Copyright (c) 2006, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Source: Northwest Florida Daily News
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