Destiny Hosmer – Staff Writer
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Eighty-five students received free, confidential HIV testing on World AIDS Day on Thursday, Dec. 1.
Unite for Reproductive Justice and Gender Equity at UAB, the Black Student Awareness Committee and the Gender and Sexuality Union partnered with UAB’s 1917 Clinic and AIDS Alabama to host the event, which offered food, giveaways and HIV testing at no cost.
An estimated 1.2 million people are living with AIDS in the United States, and approximately 35 million people are living with the disease globally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One in eight people living with HIV are unaware of their infection, and the CDC reports that among young people aged 13-24 living with HIV, an estimated 51 percent of them were unaware of their infection in 2013.
Donna Porter, Ph.D., the administrative director of the UAB Center for AIDS Research and an associate professor of medicine, said that people should get tested at least once in their lifetime, even if they do not think they have put themselves at risk.
“HIV doesn’t discriminate and feeling and appearing healthy after engaging in high-risk behaviors doesn’t mean a person is not infected,” Porter said. “Safe and effective treatments are now available to restore health and prolong life and early treatment not only prevents the spread of HIV but may give an infected person many more years of healthy living.”
According to AIDS.gov, HIV is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, and the only way to know for sure whether one has HIV is to get tested. If left untreated, HIV can lead to AIDS.
While HIV cannot be cured, it can be controlled with proper treatment and medical care. A person who is treated for HIV before it has advanced and regularly treated thereafter can live as long as someone who does not have HIV, according to AIDS.gov.
AIDS is the final stage of the HIV infection, and those diagnosed with AIDS typically survive three years with treatment.
In the U.S., HIV is most commonly spread through sexual activities and needle or syringe use.
While HIV can be contracted through certain body fluids, it cannot be contracted from casual contact such as shaking hands or using public restrooms.
Porter said that many students do not realize that substance abuse can also lead to HIV/AIDS both directly and indirectly.
“Alcohol and the use of other drugs can lower a person’s inhibitions and alter judgment, making them less likely to engage in safe sex practices,” Porter said. “Injection drug use can be a direct route for HIV transmission if people share needles and other injection materials that come in contact with blood.”
Porter said that the UAB Center for AIDS Research has been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research into effective prevention, treatment and care at the state, national and international levels since 1988.
The UAB 1917 Clinic, which celebrated 30 years of HIV/AID research on Dec. 2, is the largest HIV health care unit in the state with a current total patient population of about 3,000, according to Porter.
“Given that the southern states currently account for an estimated 44 percent of all people living with HIV in the U.S., despite the South comprising only 37 percent of the overall U.S. population,” Porter said. “Continued research to strengthen prevention and care efforts is essential not only for the health of our area but to the nation’s success in ending this epidemic.”
In 2015, only 44.6 percent of adults age 18-64 reported ever having an HIV test in Alabama, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation website, developed with CDC data.
UAB students can schedule an appointment for HIV testing with Student Health and Wellness through the Patient Portal on BlazerNET.
