National HIV Testing Day: Get Checked

The nation's fight against HIV is now more than 30 years old, but the disease still kills about 18,000 people each year. More than one million people are living with the virus, and more than 600 million people have died since the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. 

June 27 is National HIV Testing Day, a campaign spearheaded by the National Association of People with AIDS to rekindle awareness and encourage testing.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that sexually active men and women are tested for HIV every year as part of standard a STD check.

According to UNAIDS, no social group is exempt from being susceptible to HIV. Despite common perceptions about certain at-risk demographics, such as homosexual men and drug users, anyone who has unprotected sex with a person living with HIV can become infected. HIV can also be contracted by sharing contaminated needles or having a contaminated blood transfusion. Infants can also be infected from their mothers during pregnancy, labor or breastfeeding.  

"National HIV Testing Day reminds each of us to do our part in fighting HIV/AIDS and get tested," said President Barack Obama in a White House press statement. "All of us have a responsibility to ourselves and those around us to know our status and reduce our risk.  So on this National HIV Testing Day and every day, I encourage every American to join the fight against HIV/AIDS and get tested."

Here's where to get tested for HIV in and around Martinez:

• Contra Costa Health Services AIDS Program
  597 Center Ave., Suite 200
  925-313-6787

FREE HIV TESTING
Conventional HIV Oral Testing
Rapid HIV Oral Testing

• Martinez Family Practice Center
  2500 Alhambra Ave.
  925-370-5500
  Conventional HIV blood testing