ST. CROIX — Today is National HIV Testing Day, and organizations territory-wide — including the Virgin Islands Department of Health — are offering free testing services.
Here are some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facts about HIV:
- More than 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV infection, and almost 1 in 8 (12.8%) are unaware of their infection.
- Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly young black/African American MSM, are most seriously affected by HIV.
- By race, blacks/African Americans face the most severe burden of HIV.
D.O.H. will host free testing events from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Walgreens in St. Thomas and on the second floor of the Charles Harwood Complex in St. Croix.
Frederiksted Health Care, Inc. will host free testing events at 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the firm’s Ingeborg Nesbitt (516 Strand Street, Frederiksted) and Northshore Health Center (6C La Grande Princess) locations.
According to a press release issued by Government House in 2014, 134 people were diagnosed with HIV in 2008. As of late 2012, 576 people were living with HIV in the Virgin Islands, and AIDS had claimed 446 lives in the territory since the epidemic struck the territory. Furthermore, only 30 percent of the HIV population in the Virgin Islands received care in 2012, and 19 percent of the HIV population in the territory achieved viral suppression–where the level of circulating virus in the blood remains low or undetectable.
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