DuPage County offers free HIV tests
The DuPage County Health Department is offering free HIV testing on Friday, Oct. 14, to bring attention to National Latino AIDS Awareness Day.
The free HIV tests will be offered from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Health Department’s office at 245 West Roosevelt Road, Building 14, West Chicago. Spanish-speaking HIV counselors will be on hand to answer questions and provide testing.
National Latino AIDS Awareness Day is designed to increase HIV awareness and offer testing. The CDC estimates that more than 200,000 people in the Hispanic/Latino community have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The rate of new infections among Hispanic/Latino men is more than double the rate for white men; for Hispanic/Latino women the infection rate is nearly four times that of white women.
Public health leaders also are concerned about the number of late testers among the Latino population. The CDC defines late testers as persons who had their first positive HIV test less than one year before a diagnosis of AIDS.
Early knowledge of HIV status provides access to life-extending treatment options, health officials say.