Tomorrow — Thursday, Dec. 1 — is World AIDS Day, and special events are planned across the Metroplex, including an event at Main Street Garden at 7:30 p.m. in downtown Dallas, and a display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, free HIV testing and more at Cathedral of Hope, beginning at 11 a.m.
Now Dallas County Health and Human Services has announced that they will be offering free rapid HIV testing from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Early Intervention Clinic on the third floor of the DCHHS building, 2377 N. Stemmons Frwy. in Dallas.
DCHHS is also offering free tests for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside DCHHS’ mobile medical clinic, which will be stationed at Paul Quinn College, 3837 Simpson Stuart Road; and free HIV and syphilis testing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle in Denton, with testing locations on campus at the student wellness center, Kerr Hall, the student union and Discovery Park.
And if you can’t get to one of these location on Thursday, the mobile medical unit will be at the Big T Bazaar, 4515 Village Fair Drive in Dallas, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, for free testing, too.
According to 2010 statistics provided by DCHHS, nearly 14,000 people in Dallas County are living with HIV, and about 908 new cases of HIV/AIDS were diagnosed here last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV and — here’s the scary part — 1 in 5 don’t even know they are infected with the virus.
Remember people: You cannot get proper treatment for HIV if you don’t know you are infected. You cannot take proper precautions to avoid passing the virus to someone else if you don’t know you are infected. And you won’t know if you are infected unless you get tested!
