Normally, the Ball State Student Health Center treats students with simple illnesses and injuries, but today they made great strides in helping Delaware County as a whole.
On Sept. 21, the health center gave free HIV tests to anyone who made an appointment. The only information needed to book an appointment was your name and email.
To keep students feeling safe, the health center put this on their website, “When signing up, you will be asked to provide your name and BSU email which will only be seen by Health Promotion and Advocacy/ HIV testing staff.”
This increases the security of information from the tests, without the negative stigma behind sexual transmitted diseases.
“Throughout the course of history, HIV has been viewed in a very negative light, and pinpointed on a certain group of people,” Ball State student, Natalie Lacy, said.
With September being Sexual Health Awareness month, Lacey voiced her thoughts on this topic.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction of de-stigmatizing HIV,” Lacey said.
While the free HIV testing may have just been for today, you can contact the Student Health Center for any sexual health testing. Be sure to visit their website for more information for testing and resources available to students.
Contact Chandler Whitted with comments at chandler.whitted@bsu.edu
