To address the alarming increase in HIV/AIDS in Wake County, county staff and community organizations will offer testing and information at HIV Testing Day on Friday, June 27, at 202 West Academy Street in Fuquay-Varina. From 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Wake County Human Services public health counselors and educators will provide food, gifts, HIV/AIDS information and highly confidential, free HIV testing. HIV counseling will be in both English and Spanish.
Cosponsored by Fuquay-Varina Citizens Against Drugs, the Weed and Seed Initiative and Wake County Human Services, the event will also cover syphilis testing, educational presentations on other sexually transmitted diseases and individual risk assessment and counseling.
"An educated community can help stop the alarming rise of HIV/AIDS cases in Wake County," said Sharlene Simon, HIV/STD Community Programs manager, who encouraged citizens to know their HIV status and more about the spread of the disease.
Counseling looks at personal risk behaviors: new or multiple sexual partners, injection drug use, or sex with anyone else with those risks. With HIV/AIDS on the rise in Wake County, the organizers especially aim to reach underserved populations, for example, adults over age 50, incarcerated men, single mothers with history of drug abuse, and the Latino population. The events are also aimed to target communities outside the Raleigh area.
"The main thing to remember," said Simon, "is that if you have knowledge, you can take control of your life. Getting tested is the first step."
WCHS' HIV Counseling and Testing Program provides services at 14 other community-based [nonclinic] sites in Wake County with evening and weekend hours. Call 250-3950 for recorded information on times and locations.
For more information, call Sharlene Simon at 212-9503.
In calendar year 2002, North Carolina State surveillance data reported the highest number of persons newly infected in Wake County (162) of any single year to date. This 105% increase from the previous year brings the total of known HIV-positive individuals in Wake County to 1,598 persons. In the first quarter of 2003, that rate is even higher, with 76 new cases of HIV reported compared to only 32 in that same period in 2001 and 37 in 2002. The county also experienced a 116% increase in new AIDS cases. In the first quarter of 2003, 64 new AIDS diagnoses were reported, compared to 13 in the first quarter of 2001 and 31 in that period of 2002.