Resource Center of Dallas offering free, fast HIV tests

by John Wright of Dallas Voice

HIV has become a manageable disease, but only if it’s caught early and treated, according to Bret Camp, associate executive director for the Resource Center of Dallas.

The Resource Center’s Nelson-Tebedo health clinic will offer 12 hours of free testing, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., to mark National HIV Testing Day on Friday, June 27.

Forty thousand people in the U.S. are infected with HIV each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, but an estimated 25 percent of those who have the disease don’t know it.

“Now it’s even more important to get an HIV test and know your status, because we have the ability to keep people living longer if we get an early diagnosis and get them into treatment,” Camp said. “If we know someone is HIV-positive early and get them treatment, it’s a very manageable disease.”

The Resource Center has offered free testing on HIV Testing Day for more than a decade, Camp said.

But this year for the first time the Resource Center will offer rapid HIV tests, with results available in 20 minutes.

Studies have shown that with traditional HIV tests, which take a few days, more than 10 percent of people don’t return to receive their results.

“Doing the rapid testing is a wonderful tool on a day like this to make sure that people get their results and that we don’t lose anybody who doesn’t come back,” Camp said.

The rapid HIV tests will be offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. thanks to a donation from OraSure Technologies and the National Association for People with AIDS. The donation was obtained by Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.

Chris Heinbaugh, Leppert’s openly gay chief of staff, said the mayor agreed to write an op-ed piece on HIV awareness for The Dallas Morning News in exchange for 500 rapid HIV test kits from OraSure and NAPWA. OraSure manufactures OraQuick rapid HIV tests.

“The facts are clear,” Leppert said in a written statement. “Early detection of HIV can save lives. Medication at an early stage can keep your viral load low and hold off the onset of AIDS for years, maybe for good. But just as important, if you know you are infected with HIV, you can and must take steps to keep from infecting anyone else. That’s how we begin to stop the spread of HIV.”

Marybeth Ferrigno, a spokesman for OraSure, said it will mark the fourth year in which the company has partnered with NAPWA on a program called the Mayors Campaign Against HIV. Ferrigno said 68 mayors from across the country will participate this year by doing something to raise HIV awareness in exchange for the free tests.

In addition to rapid HIV testing, Camp said the Resource Center will offer free testing for syphilis during HIV Testing Day.

“Syphilis infection rates are rising the same way HIV is,” Camp said. “It’s much more comprehensive than just checking for one, because oftentimes syphilis and HIV will go hand in hand.”

The Nelson-Tebedo Clinic is at 4012 Cedar Springs Road. For more information, go to www.rcdallas.org.