[ back ]
Take the Test; Take Control
Butte County, Calif. The HIV Community Planning Group of Butte County is urging observance of national HIV Testing Day on June 27, 2010. The message to Butte County residents is to Take the Test, Take Control.
Everyone from 13 through 64 years of age should be screened for HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also recommends repeat screening at least annually for those at high risk, screening for all pregnant women and for newborns born to a mother whose HIV status is unknown are to be tested. Since 1999 HIV tests were added to the routine panel of lab work that all pregnant women are offered. Patricia Pinkham, an RN HIV Specialist who has had several years obstetrical experience at Enloe Hospital comments on the impact this routine testing has had in the U.S. Transmission rates of HIV to newborns from HIV positive mothers have decreased from 25% to less than 1% since routine screening began.
Based out of Del Norte Clinics - Chico Family Health Center, Infectious Diseases Physician Dr. Abdullah Al-Dwairi said Once viewed as a rapidly fatal disease, HIV infection is considered nowadays as a chronic illness that is compatible with a normal life expectancy. This contemporary view is only possible with early diagnosis, treatment and continuous medical care. Stigma that still surrounds HIV patients feeds on ignorance, lack of knowledge about the disease and obliviousness to the fact that no one is safe. HIV is not a disease that affects only certain groups of people. Any sexually active person should be tested. ‘Worrying about something is worse than having it, sometimes.
The CDC estimates that approximately 250,000 Americans are living with HIV but are unaware of their HIV status.
For HIV testing, talk to your medical provider or call the Butte County Public Health Department at 538-7341 in Oroville, or in Chico call 879-3665. For information on Free Testing, contact the Stonewall Alliance Center in Chico at 893-3336.
Del Norte Clinics offers a comprehensive program for HIV treatment at their Chico, Oroville and Olivehurst sites. Abdullah Al-Dwairi MD is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease and is a Diplomat of Clinical and Laboratory Immunology. Michael Bauguess PA-C is certified as an HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. Call 342-4395 x 120 for more information.
To participate in the HIV Community Planning Group of Butte County contact Deb Suderman, Director of Case Management for Caring Choices at 343-0727.
Every nine and a half minutes someone in the U.S. is infected with HIV.
Take the Test, Take Control.
[ back ]
