At least one in three of the 2.3 million people living with HIV in Europe are unaware that they are HIV positive. Get tested at Outhouse for free this Saturday.

 
 
The second European HIV testing week will be held from 21 to 28 November 2014. The goal of the week? To make more people aware of their HIV status and reduce late diagnosis by communicating the benefits of HIV testing.

“The European HIV testing week is about encouraging men who have sex with men and who are sexually active to consider testing for HIV, or to re-test for HIV if they haven’t tested in a while,” said Mick Quinlan, from the Health Service Executive (HSE).

“Knowing your status these days is important – especially with very good treatment. As our man2man.ie campaign says ‘Know The Score-Get Tested’”.

50% of people who are HIV positive are diagnosed late – which delays access to treatment. This means that many people are not being tested prior to symptoms emerging. This could be because there are barriers to requesting an HIV test or because healthcare professionals are not offering tests to these individuals despite the benefits of early HIV diagnosis being well-documented.

These statistics suggest that we need to be doing more to encourage individuals who are unknowingly living with HIV to take an HIV test and to better target HIV testing at people who could have been at risk.

HIV testing is the key to HIV and AIDS prevention.