No-Cost HIV Tests Offered on National HIV Testing Day

(Sedgwick County, Kan.) - National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is held annually on June 27. Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD) Sexually Transmitted Infections Clinic will support this effort by offering no cost HIV testing on Monday, June 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 2716 West Central, Wichita. Walk-in or call for appointment at 316-660-7300. In keeping with the NHTD theme, My Test, My Way, SCHD will offer conventional HIV tests or rapid HIV tests with results in one minute.

Everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care. Some people are more at risk of getting HIV than others and should be tested at least once a year. The CDC recommends testing for everyone who is sexually active, or who shares needles, or who is in contact with blood. 

HIV can be hard to detect without proper testing. As such, testing is important not only for HIV but for all sexually transmitted infections (STIs). To be most effective, treatment should begin as soon as possible because HIV medicine and medication for other STIs can keep you healthy for many years and reduces the risk of transmission to others.

About 1.2 million people in the United States have HIV, and 1 in 7 of them doesn’t know it. Young people are the most likely to be unaware of their HIV infection. 

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