NEWBURGH - Did you know one in five Americans don’t know they are infected because they haven’t gotten themselves tested?
In the City of Newburgh, community-based organizations and service providers came together last Wednesday to bring awareness to this fact and offer free HIV testing.
If you haven’t been tested, you’re not alone. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one out of five people living with HIV in the U.S. are unaware of their HIV Status. Knowing your status is important whether you are HIV positive or not. Early diagnosis and treatment save lives.
National HIV Testing Day was an opportunity for people nationwide to learn their HIV status and to gain knowledge, to take control of their health and their lives.
Locally, that opportunity existed at 280 Broadway in Newburgh. Planned Parenthood Mid Hudson Valley and Project Reach Out offered free HIV testing. Those who were tested received results in about 20 minutes. Other organizations, such as MISN, ARCS, Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center and Hudson Health Plan, handed out valuable information.
While a sense of urgency and hysteria no longer surrounds the issue of AIDS, it has since been replaced with its antithesis - a pervasive complacency that, in some ways, is just as alarming as the disease itself. The CDC now recommends everyone get tested for HIV as a matter of routine health care.
National HIV Testing Day’s message - “Take the Test, Take Control” - emphasized the importance of early diagnosis and treatment.
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