Free HIV testing provided for AIDS awareness week
By: Karen Myers
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For World AIDS awareness week, Webster University's campus group ONE Webster hosted an event with free HIV/AIDS testing in the University Center's presentation room Friday, Dec. 4.
Get Swabbed was part of Actual Reality week, where events to promote awareness about HIV/AIDS were centered around World AIDS Day, which was Dec.1.
The event took place at the same time as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Questioning Alliance's (LGBTQ) World Aids Day concert, between 8 p.m. and midnight.
Justin Raymundo, a sophomore international human rights and speech communication studies major, Student Government Association's president and LGBTQ's vice-president, said he hoped everyone took advantage of the free testing.
"I hope this event will debunk the myth that HIV testing is difficult as well as scary," Raymundo said. "It's important to know if you have it."
Krista "Kritter" Kiernan, a junior broadcast journalism major and president of ONE Webster, said she would be taking advantage of the testing.
"I'm not worried," Kiernan said. "We're in college, and we need to be responsible for taking care of ourselves."
Project ARK, which is a collaboration of Washington University's School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital provided the testing to WU students and community members. The organization provides information and resources to those who have been diagnosed with HIV. They also provide confidential and free HIV testing. Project ARK is subsidized through the state of Missouri and through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Danny Gladden, the prevention coordinator at Project ARK.
"It's a great opportunity to partner with the alliance and ONE Webster to provide testing for students and community members," Gladden said. "Any time we have an opportunity to talk positively and openly about safe sex it's a good thing."
Those who wished to get swabbed had to first complete a sexual health questionnaire. If they were deemed high risk for HIV transmission, they were tested. Those at the greatest risk for HIV are people who have had multiple sex partners, who have used needles or intravenous drugs, who have had sex under the influence of alcohol or who have had unprotected sex.
The HIV testing was free and confidential. However, not many WU students would admit to actually being tested, because those who were tested were deemed "high risk," said LGBTQ member Kelsey Templeton, a junior international relations and public relations major.
Many were there to see the concert, not to get swabbed. Some said they had recently been tested.
Kiernan said she thought a lot of people might have been discouraged by the waiting time, which was about 20 to 30 minutes. Upon arrival, Project ARK wanted to do counseling before testing in order to use the tests on those most at risk. She said that if ONE Webster were to do the event again it would be better to have it last all day and sign up for times similar to a blood drive. More than 50 people signed up to get tested, but there was only time to get to 25 of those who had signed up for counseling or testing.
"Toward the end of the year, every year, there are a limited number of tests," Gladden said. "We wanted to maximize resources."
Gladden said that because of medical privacy regulations he couldn't say how many people had been tested. But he did reveal that 11 HIV tests were brought to the event and said that nearly all of them were used.
Gladden said 25 people were present for testing and counseling and of those, 76 percent were getting tested or counseled for the first time, and those who weren't tested still went through a risk reduction plan and provided a service for free testing and counseling.
"There was a wonderful sex-positive feel about the entire event," Gladden said.
Rather than the traditional method of getting tested for HIV, through drawing blood, those who chose to get tested at the event were swabbed with a cotton swab in their mouth. Then, the cotton swab is placed in a solution and test results are available in 10 to 14 days. Each person tested is given a unique identification number, so everything remains confidential. It is required by Missouri state law for HIV test results to be given in person, so once the results are ready those tested will go to Washington University to receive their results, said Gladden.
"Giving the results in person also allows for another opportunity for risk reduction counseling," Gladden said.
Although the event was free, donations were being accepted at the door. The donations will benefit amfAR, an AIDS research foundation.
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