Nov 30, 2007 12:11 pm US/Pacific
Villaraigosa Takes HIV Test To Promote Health Plan
Initiative Aims To Get 1 million Angelenos Tested For HIV/AIDS By 2011
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took a HIV test to support a new campaign to get 1 million Angelenos tested for HIV/AIDS by 2011.
AP
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took a rapid swab HIV test Friday to promote the city's new campaign to get 1 million Angelenos tested for HIV/AIDS by 2011.
The testing device looks like a tongue compressor and takes a saliva sample from patients, who can find out their HIV status in as little as 20 minutes.
"If we are going to eliminate HIV in Los Angeles, we need to get past the stereotypes and stigma, and make HIV testing a part of routine healthcare for all Angelenos," Villaraigosa said. "This initiative is about moving to make HIV testing in L.A. easy, accessible and free for all Angelenos."
Los Angeles County public health officials estimate that 15,000 people in the city of Los Angeles do not know they are infected with HIV.
The city's HIV Testing Initiative will target minority communities that make up the bulk of new infections in Lns Angeles.
Blacks represent 22 percent of the city's 21,937 AIDS cases, but just 11 percent of the population, according to the mayor's office. Latinos make up 41 percent of AIDS cases in Los Angeles.
"The growing number of Latinos affected by AIDS is alarming," said Councilman Jose Huizar. "Latinos constitute 41 percent of the known HIV/AIDS cases in Los Angeles and Latinas constitute 44 percent -- we must do everything we can to reduce these dramatic numbers."
The state Department of Health Office of AIDS found the number of Latinos living with AIDS increased 128 percent between 1996 and 2006. Health officials also found Latinos often delayed testing and were diagnosed with HIV six months to one year before contracting full-blown AIDS.
The initiative, which will expand testing capabilities at more than 50 hospitals and clinics, will be run by the city's AIDS Coordinator's Office and funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which donated $100,000, Gilead Sciences and test-maker OraSure.
"This innovative public/private partnership to do 1 million HIV tests in the city of Los Angles over the next four years comes at the right time, in the right city with the right partners," said Whitney Engeran, director of AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Public Health Division.
"There is a clear and compelling need to dramatically scale up testing nationwide, and Los Angeles is large enough for a program such as this to really work, yet small enough that we can be nimble and adapt the program as needed along the way."
In honor of Saturday's World AIDS Day, AIDS Healthcare Foundation will sponsor mobile HIV testing at the West Angeles Cathedral Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and at Out of the Closet in Long Beach from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Free HIV testing is also available at Out of the Closet in Hollywood and West Hollywood every day from 3 to 7 p.m.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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