Clinics to offer HIV testing today
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Screenings for National HIV Testing Day will be held around the United States today, but the Pittsburgh MSM Prevention Collaborative wants residents to know that testing is always available here.
"Every day is testing day," said Anne Davis, research recruiter/community educator for the University of Pittsburgh Microbicide Trials Network Clinical Research Site and part of the prevention collaborative. The research is devoted to developing products to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV. "The goal is to get tested, period."
There are a number of testing sites in the city. They include the Allegheny County Health Department, 3441 Forbes Ave., Oakland; Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, 5913 Penn Ave., second floor, East Liberty; Pittsburgh AIDS Center for Treatment, 741 Falk Medical Building, 3601 Fifth Ave., Oakland; Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, 933 Liberty Ave., Downtown; Positive Health Clinic, (Allegheny General Hospital), 1307 Federal St., Suite B10, North Side; and two Adagio Health sites, one at 100 Forbes Ave., Suite 1000, Kossman Building, Downtown, and another at 211 N. Whitfield St., Suite 850, East Liberty.
Positive Health Clinic, Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh AIDS Center for Treatment and Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force offer rapid HIV oral testing, which takes less than 30 minutes, including paperwork. In the oral test, during which swabs are taken from the mouth, patients are immediately given results of "non-reactive" or "reactive." Non-reactive is the same as a negative test, but reactive does not mean the patient is positive for HIV. Rather, it means that further confirmatory testing is necessary, Ms. Davis said.
To mark National HIV Testing Day, the county health department is offering walk-in conventional blood or oral testing; usually it requires appointments.
Also because of the national day, the Pittsburgh AIDS Center for Treatment will hold walk-in testing between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The Positive Health Clinic, meanwhile, is holding testing with refreshments at the Pittsburgh Project Guesthouse, 2801 N. Charles St., North Side, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
If the sites listed above aren't convenient, finding one that is can be accomplished by going to the website www.hivtest.org and typing in your ZIP code and a search-distance radius. After hitting "Enter," a list of locations with a map is displayed.
Those testing sites are available year-round, Ms. Davis said. Among sites offering free testing are the Health Department, Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, the Positive Health Clinic and the Pittsburgh AIDS Center for Treatment; other sites consider ability to pay when setting prices.
First Published June 27, 2011 12:00 am
