Welcome to Passing the Test: The Challenges and Opportunities
of HIV Testing in Black America.
We are pleased to partner with the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GBC) and the National Association of People with
AIDS (NAPWA) on this edition of the state of AIDS in Black America series by the Black AIDS Institute.
Knowing your HIV status is a right and a responsibility. Knowing the HIV status of your partner can save your life, and finding out your HIV status has never been easier. HIV tests are affordable. There are agencies offering free HIV tests in nearly every city in America. HIV tests are painless. The most common form of HIV testing today uses an oral swab—no more blood or needles.
The days of waiting a week to get your results are over. With the rapid tests, you can get your results back in less than an hour. People who are diagnosed late in the course of HIV infection have a much poorer
prognosis than individuals whose HIV diagnosis is timelier. In New York City, individuals whose HIV and AIDS diagnoses occur within 31 days of one another are twice as likely to die within four months of diagnosis as people with a non-concurrent AIDS diagnosis. Early knowledge of HIV infection plays a key role in reducing HIV-related morbidity and mortality.
So, let’s think about it. HIV tests are free, easy, painless, quick, and you get information that just might save your life. What’s not to love about that? You would think everyone in America would get tested for HIV. Yet, 1 in 2 of Black people in the U.S. infected with HIV don’t know their HIV status. Many people living with HIV are diagnosed only in response to symptoms, usually several years after initial exposure to the virus. In Washington, D.C., 69% of AIDS cases were diagnosed with HIV less than a year earlier. Among HIV-positive Black gay and bisexual men who participated in a CDC sponsored multi-city study, 67% were previously unaware of their
infection.