Persons using assistive technology might not be able to fully access information in this file. For assistance, please send e-mail to: mmwrq@cdc.gov. Type 508 Accommodation and the title of the report in the subject line of e-mail.
National HIV Testing Day --- June 27, 2008
June 27 is National HIV Testing Day, which focuses on the importance of knowing one's current human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection status. In 2003,
approximately 25% of the estimated 1 million persons in the United
States infected with HIV were unaware of their infection
(1). CDC encourages learning one's HIV status through HIV testing
(2) and has recommended that voluntary HIV testing be offered routinely in health-care settings to all persons aged
13--64 years (3). Persons at higher risk for HIV should get tested more frequently (e.g., men who have sex with men should get tested
at least annually). To address the disproportionately high rate of HIV infection among blacks, CDC has increased HIV
testing opportunities in 23 geographic areas with the largest number of HIV cases, so that more blacks can know their HIV
status (4).
Persons who learn that they are infected with HIV at an earlier stage of infection can survive longer by receiving
appropriate care and can prevent transmitting HIV to others. Additional information, including a list of testing sites, is available
at http://www.hivtest.org.
References
Glynn M, Rhodes P. Estimated HIV prevalence in the United States at the end of 2003 [Abstract T1-B1101]. Programs and abstracts of the
2005 National HIV Prevention Conference; June 12--15, 2005; Atlanta, GA. Available at http://www.aegis.com/conferences/nhivpc/2005/t1-b1101.html.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from typeset documents.
This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version.
Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr)
and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371;
telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to
mmwrq@cdc.gov.
