Local AIDS campaign wraps in Windsor

Free testing can be done anonymously with no health card required by patients

Making the decision to get tested for HIV can be scary, but the AIDS Committee of Windsor says that deciding to get tested is often the biggest hurdle.

“Once you’ve gone past that part and you’re ready for the test, you’ve already surpassed the biggest challenge,” said AIDS Committee of Windsor’s executive director Michael Brennan.

The committee encouraged people to surpass that hurdle and get tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections during its testing week campaign June 23-28.

Brennan said each of the four testing locations hosted about 40 people on their respective testing day.

Testing is completely free and can be done anonymously, with no health card required. That’s to ensure cost or identification isn’t a barrier to people deciding to get tested, Brennan said.

“HIV is still stigmatized, so some people are really leery about going to their primary care physicians and talking about sex or what their sexual behaviours are,” he said.

“So this allows an opportunity for individuals to still be tested, with some anonymity around it.”

Brennan said the sooner you get tested and the earlier you get a diagnosis, the better the chances are of living a full and rich life.

Last year’s campaign saw 120 people tested. None received HIV-positive results, and eight saw STD positive results.

Those with positive test results were immediately linked to followup care.

The panel includes HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.

The testing campaign is “piggybacking ” off the American National Testing Day which was Tuesday, Brennan said.

Canada doesn’t have a national strategy on HIV, unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, although the committee would like to see a national strategy in the future.

Nineteen per cent of people living with HIV in Canada don’t know they’re infected with the virus, Brennan said.

“We want to make sure that those individuals those individuals are testing so we can get them linked to care,” he continued.

“Because once an individual is linked to care, we can get them on antiretroviral treatment. And once they’re on antiretroviral treatment, their viral load goes down. And then that gets them to a place of optimal health.”

Stigma is often a barrier toward testing.

“People in the community who really don’t have knowledge around the virus and what it is may cast moral judgment on individuals who have HIV,” Brennan said.

“So when other people see groups of people judging or criticizing or condemning individuals who have HIV, they’re stigmatizing them ... So what underpins a lot of our work is trying to make people understand that it’s a virus. It’s not a moral judgment on an individual.”

Brennan added that once an HIV-positive individual gets treatment and their viral load becomes undetectable, the chance of transmission is practically zero.

“I don’t want to mislead people by having them think that HIV is not a serious piece, but I also want them to know, there is treatment that is available,” Brennan said.

“And that you still can live a very normal and productive life, at the end of the day.”

HIV testing is available at multiple locations in Windsor-Essex.

You can find the location closest to you at the AIDS Committee of Windsor website.

HIV is still stigmatized, so some people are really leery about going to their primary care physicians and talking about sex …