Know your status: Suffolk offers free HIV testing in Riverhead Wednesday

Residents can get free HIV testing Wednesday at the HRHCare Community Health Center in Riverhead.

Testing will be offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the health center, located at 300 Center Drive. The event, sponsored by Suffolk County’s “Ending the Epidemic” Committee, will also feature food and refreshments, giveaways and music.

The testing event is part of the “Ending the Epidemic” program established in New York in 2014 that aims, by 2020, to reduce the number of new HIV infections by 75 percent and — for the first time ever — reduce the number of New Yorkers living with HIV.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June 2014 announced a three-point plan with the goal of bringing New York closer to ending the AIDS epidemic — by reducing the number of new HIV infections from about 3,000 per year to 750.

The number of new infections has been falling since the implementation of the statewide education and screening program. There were 2,881 new HIV infections in 2016, compared to 3,163 the year before. The 2016 statistics, released in December, are the most recent published by the state health department. The largest decrease was among young people age 20 to 24; the number of new infections fell 20 percent in that group. Men who have sex with other men accounted for 1,804 new infections in 2015 and fell to 1,580 in 2016.

There were 112,919 people living with HIV or AIDS in New York State as of December 2016.

The state’s blueprint for achieving its HIV reduction goals hinges on a three-point plan:

• Identify people with HIV who have been previously undiagnosed.

• Provide HIV-positive individuals with health care to maximize virus suppression so they remain healthy and prevent further transmission.

• Facilitate access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for high-risk persons to keep them HIV-negative.

Free testing events like the one set for Wednesday in Riverhead help identify previously undiagnosed HIV-positive individuals, the crucial first step in combatting the spread of the virus.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

HIV is a health condition that can be managed, and people living with HIV can have a healthy life.

“HIV treatment is effective, easy to take and has few or no side effects,” according to the NYS health department.

The only way to know whether you are infected is to get tested. People can live for many years without any symptoms.
The state health department recommends testing for everyone age 13 and over.

All pregnant women should be tested as early as possible in their pregnancy for HIV. If a woman is living with HIV there are medicines she can take to keep herself healthy and prevent the baby from getting HIV, though the virus can be passed from mother to baby during breastfeeding.

HIV is transmitted by unprotected vaginal or anal sex and by syringes, needles and other things used to inject drugs.

For more information see the NYS health department website.