Ball State students sat in line to get free HIV testing Monday, some waiting more than an hour.
After waiting an hour and 15 minutes, freshman political science major Daqavise Winston was tested.
“I would rather be sitting in a chair for an hour and 15 minutes to be safe instead of going home and watching television and not being safe,” Winston said. “Today’s world, it’s treatable if detected. We are young people. We are sexually active. You can pass it on. Nobody is going to know until it’s too late.”
Park Hall hosted the event in honor of World AIDS Day. Open Door Family Planning provided the HIV testing.
The Center for Disease Control recommends yearly HIV testing for sexually active people.
Open Door Family Planning tested 57 people by collecting saliva on a cotton swab. After 20 minutes, their results were told to them confidentially. Safety was a common theme among the participants.
“I think it’s important,” said Steven Aguilera, a senior social studies and history major. “You never know, and it only takes one time. It’s better to be smart, instead of scared of what people think. I wish that it was offered more than once a year.”
According to the CDC at the end of 2009, an estimated 1,148,200 persons aged 13 and older were living with HIV infection in the U.S., including 207,600 undiagnosed persons.
Open Door Family Planning provided a questionnaire for participants to answer about risk factors as they waited. Risk factors include multiple partners, not using protection during intimacy and being a gay male.
“We give you something to think about as you wait for those 20 minutes,” said Christina Karch, community health educator from Open Door Family Planning. “One in four of African-American women are HIV positive. If your test is positive, I send it out for a confirmatory test. I am your counselor.”
Condoms, informational pamphlets about HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases informative papers lined the sign-up table.
“A lot more people showed up than I thought would,” said Anna Helmbrecht, a peer health educator at the Amelia T. Wood Health Center. “I’ve seen people confidentially. If it was out in the open, I don’t know how many people would have come.”
Indiana’s legislation has the “duty to warn” law, which requires people with HIV to make reasonable attempts to tell past, present and future partners.
“No matter if you are straight, gay or bi[sexual], male or female, use a condom or not, you should always get tested because you can never be too safe,” Winston said.
Open Door Family Planning does HIV/AIDS testing at the Muncie location at 905 S. Walnut St. The clinic can be reached at 765-286-7000.
“[The] sooner you know, [the] better your life is,” Karch said.
