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Los Angeles County Offers Free HIV Testing

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Jun 23, 2008 12:17 pm US/Pacific

Los Angeles County Offers Free HIV Testing

LOS ANGELES

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Of the more than 53,000 AIDS cases were reported in Los Angeles County as of December 2007, nearly 31,000 of the patients have died, according to the county Department of Public Health's Office of AIDS Programs and Policy.
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Almost 2,000 Los Angeles County residents are expected to take advantage of the free HIV testing offered as part of HIV Counseling and Testing Week, which started Monday.

Of the more than 53,000 AIDS cases were reported in Los Angeles County as of December 2007, nearly 31,000 of the patients have died, according to the county Department of Public Health's Office of AIDS Programs and Policy.

Nearly 70 percent of new infections each year are caused by people who do not know they have the disease, according to Dr. Michael Green, chief of the Planning and Research Division of the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy.

"There's no good reason not to get tested," Green said. "You can have it for a while and think periodically that you have the flu or something else. You often don't know until you're in the later stages."

Though there is still no cure for AIDS, detecting the disease early allows for greater treatment options and reduces the risk of spreading it, he said.

Green noted that while AIDS cases in the county remain clustered around the Hollywood/West Hollywood and Long Beach areas, the rate of increase in reported AIDS cases is rising most quickly among minorities.

"Until a few years ago, it was a white gay man's disease," Green said.

Now, however, the case rate -- or the percentage of infection among a given portion of the population -- is highest among blacks and Latinos, he said.

A list of the sites offering the free testing is available at www.lapublichealth.org/aids.