World's first ‘test and treat’ HIV prevention team visits Uptown

World’s first ‘test and treat’ HIV prevention team visits Uptown

Door-to-door campaign offers free, confidential testing

SDUN Staff

HIV testers from UC San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD) are knocking on doors in Uptown offering residents the opportunity to take a free and confidential finger-prick HIV test.

Part of UCSD’s Lead the Way Campaign, the mobile testing team will visit thousands of homes in the Mission Hills and North Park neighborhoods throughout the end of this year.

Lead the Way is the world’s first comprehensive “test and treat” model of HIV prevention. Locations the trained testers visit are randomly selected and the tests provide results in minutes. Testers will ask those who don’t want to take a test to instead take a brief survey to assess why they declined.

“Volunteering to take the quick finger-prick test or filling out the survey will help us understand why people will or will not take an HIV test. If we can understand the psychology, we can create more effective campaigns to promote testing. The ultimate goal is that everyone gets tested and those who need treatment receive it, so we can significantly curb the spread of HIV,” said Susan Little, MD, professor of medicine in UCSD’s Division of Infectious Diseases and head researcher of Lead the Way.

“We hope that San Diegans understand that this is an important opportunity to support the overall health of their community by participating in this project,” Little said.

Hillcrest resident Sean Eshelman said he would “absolutely” be willing to take the test. “Information like that is very valuable to the community. Whether you’re gay or straight, it benefits us all,” he added.

Testing the entire 92103 and 92104 communities is the first step in a multiple year project to demonstrate that, with appropriate testing and HIV treatment, HIV can be controlled within a community.

“Increasing evidence supports the idea that if everyone in the world were encouraged to be tested
for HIV at least once in their lives; if HIV positive individuals were all offered treatment in the form of antiretroviral medications; and if high-risk individuals continued to be tested once each year, the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission could be markedly reduced,” a release from Lead the Way, said.

“Lead the Way research aims to find out whether or not people will test for HIV if the test is made readily available.”

Little said that this is the first time an HIV campaign has targeted everyone—both high- and low-risk individuals—based on the presumption that if everyone is tested for HIV, those found to be HIV positive can be treated with antiretroviral medications, reducing the spread of the disease to others.

The Lead the Way campaign launched on May 11, 2011, with a testing center located at 3830 Park Blvd., inside The Egyptian building on the corner of University and Park in Hillcrest The center offers free 10-minute HIV testing from noon to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.