Yesterday Was US National HIV Testing Day

category: HIV

Published June 28, 2009 @ 09:48AM PT

I've been getting tested for HIV on and off since 1996, mostly to get visas for travel to restrictive countries. The first time I got tested, it freaked me out. I was getting tested so I could get an Egyptian visa; I didn't have any risk reason for the test. But I made up a whole (deeply implausible) story about how I could have been infected anyway. Then I pretty much just twitched until I got my test results. The second time, I made up the infection story, but I didn't do any twitching. The third time I only spent about three minutes worrying and then I pretty much forgot about the test until my results came.

The last time I got tested for HIV was four years ago, when I was pregnant with my son. It was part of my doctor's standard package of tests for pregnant women. I didn't see any reason for the test, but I didn't see any reason not to, either. And no, I still didn't have HIV. But I could. We all could.

I have a point here. Getting tested for HIV is hard the first time, but it gets easier. And if you do have HIV, getting tested will save your life.

If you want to get involved with global health, getting tested for HIV is your first step. You are part of global health - not just your advocacy or your donations, but your own health. Global pandemics don't just happen somewhere else. They happen in your city, and in your town. HIV is scarier and more urgent than swine flu. Make sure that you're not part of its spread.

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Comments (1)

Probably more info than anyone wants to know, but I had a real HIV testing horror story. So back in the day, I used to give blood regularly to the Red Cross, which actually is one of the few ways in the US to get an HIV test without any form of counseling (they, as I found out, just mail you the results if it comes back positive). So i did this one year, I think my 3rd year of college, and then didn't think anything of it. Then, after a concert in which I was performing, my parents (who came to watch, as they lived close, and whose house I still used as my permanent address) cornered me backstage and handed me a letter. They had addressed it to me, but just my first and last name, which my father and I share (we go by our middle names), so my parents had opened it. Inside, the Red Cross felt the need to inform me that my HIV tests at the time of most recently giving blood came back positive and inconclusive (they do I think 6 on each batch of blood). Which of course my parents had read, and they were upset, and then I was understandably upset. Couldn't think of any real way I could have gotten the virus, but man, your mind can definitely come up with some crazy scenarios when you're under stress like that.

So all of that happened on a Sunday, and because of my class schedule, I couldn't get to a health department to take a test again until Wednesday, at which point I took another one (ready in an hour--and I certainly twitched the entire time) which came back negative. Quite a relief, but definitely the worst week of my life to that point. Have had a few more since then, and yeah, definitely get easier with time.

On the plus side, I now meet like 3 or 4 different exclusion criteria for why I don't have to feel guilty about donating blood anymore!

Posted by Patrick Mayne on 06/29/2009 @ 12:41PM PT
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Author

Alanna Shaikh has spent the last ten years immersed in global health; she has worked for NGOs, companies, universities, and the US government on projects that ranged from preventing antibacterial resistance to improving maternal and child health.