HIV testing up greatly in April

Responding to a challenge from District 2 City Councilman William “Cruz” Shaw, more than 4,000 San Antonio residents were tested for HIV during April.

The goal was to administer four times the number of HIV tests normally done in a single month. April was chosen because it was national Sexually Transmitted Disease Awareness Month.

Shaw’s council colleagues rose to the challenge, as did community partners that work to eradicate HIV, according to a statement from the city’s health department Thursday.

Shirley Gonzales’ District 5 topped the list, with 506 HIV tests performed, followed by Rebecca Viagran’s District 3, which tallied 480 tests. Third place went to District 2, with 479 tests.

Locally, one in seven people with HIV don’t know they have the virus. Bexar County’s new HIV diagnosis rates have been consistently higher than state and national rates in the last 10 years, health records show. Metro Health seeks to reduce the level of infection until the disease is eliminated altogether, officials said.

The number of cases of gonorrhea and syphilis also rose in Bexar County last year, as did cases of chlamydia.

Community partners that participated in the challenge by offering free tests include the Alamo Area Resource Center, Beat AIDS Coalition, the Center for Health Care Services, San Antonio AIDS Foundation, San Antonio Fighting Back, University Health System’s FFACTS Clinic and Metro Health.

“We’ve raised awareness so much through this competition,” Colleen Bridger, director of Metro Health, said in a news release. “Thousands more people know their status today and even more are aware of the need to know your status.”

Officials said the challenge results move Metro Health closer to reaching its Fast Track Cities 9090-90 targets by the year 2020, part of a national program to reduce HIV infections. The goals include:

90 percent of people with HIV diagnosed;

90 percent of people diagnosed with HIV receiving treatment;

90 percent of people treated for HIV seeing their viral loads become undetectable.