Free HIV Tests Offered Beyond National HIV Testing Day

It’s National HIV Testing Day, and you can get tested for free.
 
We spoke with area health officials about how they’re spreading the awareness.
 
Fargo Cass Public Health provides free HIV tests to anyone, year round, even for those without health insurance.
 
Fargo Cass Public Health Director Dr. Larry Anenson Jr., “Finances should not be an issue for people for not coming in to be tested, if you think you are at risk, please come in and get tested.”
 
Health officials say everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should get HIV tests.
 
“HIV does not discriminate, anybody can get HIV,” Anenson says.
 
ND Division of Disease Control Twila Singh says, “I could give you 200 pictures, portraits, head shots of people in the United States and you would never be able to guess whether they were HIV positive.”
 
Twila Singh says the world of medicine has come a long way since HIV was first discovered in the 1980’s.
 
“It used to be viewed as a death sentence, that if you has HIV, you had AIDS, you were gonna die, it was also called the gay man’s disease, and we didn’t know a lot about it. Now HIV is, in the medical field, much more manageable. Being diagnosed with HIV is not a death sentence, you can live a happy healthy normal life,” Singh says.
 
Getting an HIV test is free and confidential. It also tests for Hepatitis C.

With just a prick of the finger and one drop of blood, your test results come in 15 minutes later.
 
“A person who is living with HIV, the number one thing they can do is get into a treatment program,” Singh says.
 
HIV positive North Dakotans can apply for the Ryan White program, which will help cover costs of medications and treatments based on yearly income.
 
“It’s pretty easy to enroll in that program, it’s just a referral and a phone call and coming in for a physical appointment,” Singh says.
 
And thanks to programs like Ryan White, free tests, and medical discoveries, Twila says worldwide HIV infections may have reached a peak.
 
“We’ve seen worldwide, our numbers plateau. So are hitting the point where we might actually be able to reduce the number of infections worldwide,” Singh says.
 
It is estimated that 500 North Dakotans are living with HIV.

Health officials say 90 percent of new HIV infections could be prevented by testing people living with HIV early, and making sure they receive ongoing treatment.