Take control of your health by taking advantage of National HIV Testing Day to find out your HIV status

What’s your HIV status? Do you know it? How can you find out?

If you don’t know the answer to those questions, National HIV Testing Day — set this year for Friday, June 27 — is your opportunity to take control of your health and learn your status. It’s an issue of high importance at the Resource Center of Dallas, and we are here to help you.

It’s believed that a quarter of a million Americans have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and are not aware of it. More than 40,000 Americans are infected with HIV every year.

Last year in Dallas County, 911 people learned that they were HIV positive. Of those cases, more than eight of 10 males who were diagnosed were gay, bisexual or heterosexual men who had sex with other men. That group made up 64 percent of all new HIV cases in Dallas County in 2007.

In addition, 34 percent of new cases were diagnosed in both men and women over the age of 40 — a generation first impacted by the virus more than a generation ago, when shame and ignorance led to fear and isolation of those who were infected.


This population is now feeling the battle fatigue and letting their guard down when it comes to safer sex practices — and becoming infected. In some cases, this may be due to men trying to recapture a sense of intimacy that is lost using latex barriers, and a misguided perception that HIV is an insignificant infection.

That’s not to say that young people aren’t getting infected. They still are: 331 Dallas County residents under the age of 30 were diagnosed with HIV in 2007. Of those, 289 were between the ages of 20 and 29.

Who should get an HIV test? If you are a sexually active man or woman not in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship, you should get a regular HIV test.

The Centers for Disease Control says if you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, you should be tested:

• Have you injected drugs or steroids or shared equipment (such as needles, syringes, works) with others?

• Have you had unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with men who have sex with men, multiple partners, or anonymous partners?

• Have you exchanged sex for drugs or money?

• Have you been diagnosed with or treated for hepatitis, tuberculosis, or a sexually transmitted disease like syphilis?

• Have you had unprotected sex with someone who could answer yes to any of the above questions?


When the pandemic first began in the 1980s, HIV was thought to be a disease solely affecting Caucasian gay males. That was wrong back then, and it’s wrong today.

To some people, these numbers may come as a surprise:

African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they account for nearly half of all diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases. In fact, it is the leading cause of death nationwide for African-American women between the ages of 25 and 34.

In Dallas County last year, 45 percent of all new AIDS cases were diagnosed among African-American men and women.

You can take steps to stop the spread of HIV. It’s easier than you might think. Just follow these rules:

• Always practice safe sex. No exceptions.

• Talk about sex with prospective partners. Emphasize that there will be safe sex only — or none at all.

• Talk to your doctor about getting tested — and do it.

• If you don’t have a doctor, organizations like the Resource Center of Dallas make it easy for you to learn your status.

• Encourage the people in your life to get tested. This includes your partners, your friends and your family.

There is no cure for HIV. But being infected does not mean that you are going to get sick and die. Early detection is the key to long-term survival. New drugs are being developed all the time. Those drugs fight the amount of the HIV virus in your body, and in turn help you to remain healthy.

If you have been tested for HIV before, then congratulations. You have done the right thing. If it has been more than a year since you were last tested, now is your chance to be tested again.

We will offer 12 hours of continuous testing at the Nelson-Tebedo Health Resource Center, 4012 Cedar Springs Road, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Rapid HIV testing will be offered until 5 p.m., and you can get your results in 20 minutes.

And, you don’t need an appointment to get tested on National HIV Testing Day; just show up at the center.

I want to personally thank Mayor Tom Leppert and the National Association of People with AIDS for donating the rapid HIV testing kits we will use to help you learn your status.

The Nelson-Tebedo Health Resource Center, part of the Resource Center of Dallas, has led the way in serving the Dallas community through HIV testing, education and services for 19 years. Our commitment to helping those affected by HIV and AIDS, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity remains steadfast.

So, what’s stopping you? It’s easy, it’s quick and it’s free. Get tested on June 27.

Bret Camp is associate executive director of health and medical services for the Resource Center of Dallas.



This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 20, 2008.