Letter to the Editor

I work at AVOL (AIDS Volunteers, Inc.) in the Center for HIV Prevention and Community Outreach, and I wanted to thank the University of Kentucky and University Health Service for allowing us to partner with them for World AIDS Day and supporting Dining Out for Life, our annual fundraiser. We had a sexual health trivia booth at the Safer Sex Fair last Tuesday and also helped to provide free HIV screenings on campus. Because of those efforts, over twenty UK students learned their HIV status that day, and that is awesome.

I do want to remind everyone that while I encourage everyone to wear a red ribbon to remember those affected by HIV/AIDS and inspire conversations about the pandemic, that HIV will not be eradicated by simply wearing pretty red ribbons. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 1 in 5 people living with HIV are unaware of their status, and those people who are unaware of their infection are responsible for 54% of new HIV infections. Those statistics are startling — as they should be — but imagine the dent that could be made in HIV/AIDS if everyone were to get tested and learn their status.

Please, no matter your sexual orientation or gender, if you have ever had unprotected sex with anyone, get yourself tested for HIV. Thirty-four million people are infected worldwide, and most of those people do not have the same access to education, prevention materials, testing and treatment that this community does. Knowing your status will not only help you take care of yourself, but also your partners.

At AVOL, we provide free and anonymous walk-in HIV antibody screenings every Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. (or any time during the week by appointment).  We also keep free condoms at several locations in Lexington, from bars to tattoo parlors to clinics. On campus, you can get our condoms at the VIP Center and OUTsource, just to name a couple places.

Educate yourself, use condoms and get tested!