Kane County Health Dept. offers testing for HIV/AIDS

An estimated 1.2 million Americans currently are living with HIV, and one in five of those people — about 240,000 — don’t know it.

World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 serves as an annual reminder that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has not gone away, and that testing, care and treatment can help save lives and improve the health of those living with the disease.

The Kane County Health Department encourages all residents between the ages of 13 and 64 to be tested for HIV/AIDS.

“Testing early can lead to timely care and treatment that can improve the health of a person with HIV and prevent giving the virus to others,” said Kane County Health Department Executive Director Paul Kuehnert.

Everyone can ask his or her doctor for an HIV test.

In addition, testing sites in Kane County are: Open Door Clinic; call for appointments, in Aurora (630) 264-1819, or in Elgin (847) 695-1093; and Renz Prevention Center, One American Way, Elgin, (847) 697-1221.

This year in Kane County, 22 people have been diagnosed with HIV, and 10 with AIDS. Since 2005, a total of 237 have been diagnosed with HIV and 161 with AIDS.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, counseling works, yet only 45 percent of people with HIV in care received prevention counseling in the previous 12 months on how to protect themselves and prevent passing the virus to others.

More information about World AIDS Day is available at aids.gov and from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

More information about the HIV/AIDs epidemic is available at the CDC website, www.cdc.gov/Features/VitalSigns/HIVTesting/. Learn about HIV/AIDS, how it is and is not transmitted, the risk factors for HIV transmission, preventing transmission and the symptoms of HIV infection.