I offered to get tested for HIV/AIDS as part of this article because I thought it would be a good way to inform people about the virus and hopefully dispel some of the myths about—and stigma surrounding—testing. I was also highly confident in my status. I’d never been tested before, but I was 100 percent positive I wasn’t HIV-positive.
But I was still nervous. As I drove over to the Pacific Pride Foundation (PPF) on Church Street in Santa Maria, I started worrying.
“I’m going to have to talk about my sex life with a source. This is going to be so awkward,” I realized and then gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.
That thought somehow progressed into, “Oh my God, what if I do test positive? Will I have the guts to write about it in the paper? Will people shun me?”
Such thoughts often stop people from getting tested. But, as a PPF employee told me in a previous interview, “The best thing you can do is come in and get tested and know your status … and of course practice safe sex.”
Earlier this month, PPF reported a significant increase in the number of new HIV and AIDS cases—approximately 14 people have tested positive since January.
“We’ve seen increases in every community: young, old, heterosexual, and homosexual,” community outreach coordinator Ken Osepyan said before administering my test.
The test I’m taking—and the one that PPF most commonly uses with its clients—is a rapid oral swab test.
“It’s highly accurate. It’s just like any blood test done in a doctor’s office,” he said, handing me something that looked comically similar to a pregnancy test.
He told me to rub it across my gums “to collect blood cells.” Several seconds later, he disappeared down the hall to start processing my results.
While he was gone, I filled out an anonymous form asking for some very basic identification information, such as the first letter of my last name, my gender, and birth date, and some more in-depth information about my sex life.
As we waited for my results, Osepyan gave me a crash course on HIV/AIDS, testing, treatment, and statistics.
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a blood-borne virus spread through sexual contact, sharing dirty needles or syringes, and blood. It can also spread to infants through breast milk. It can’t be spread through saliva, sweat, or tears. HIV causes AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease that weakens the immune system and destroys the body’s ability to fight infections and other diseases.
When getting tested for HIV, Osepyan said, there are three possible results: negative, preliminary positive, or invalid. If a person tests preliminary positive, his or her blood is sent to a lab for additional confirmation. An invalid result means the test was faulty.
What many people don’t know about the virus is that it can take the human body three to six months to start developing HIV antibodies. This “window period” means it might be three to six months before an HIV test reveals someone is infected.
“I tell people, ‘this test will only show possible infection from the time you were born to the past six months. Anything after that—you’ll have to test again to close the window,’” Osepyan said.
The goal of the test, he explained, is obviously to inform people of their status, but also to educate people and to answer any questions they might have.
Osepyan said he’s worried by the public’s lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
“What really worries me is the youth. I’m really impressed when someone in high school comes in and knows everything because most kids don’t know much,” he said. “It makes me wonder what they’re teaching in health classes.”
Nationally, 14- to 23-year-olds are the individuals most likely to test positive for HIV/AIDS. The last three to four people to test positive in Santa Barbara County were younger than 30.
Educating young people about sexual health is very important, Osepyan said, adding, “just because you don’t talk about [sex with your kids] doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
“It’s not acceptable to talk about sex in a lot of households in our community but—let’s face it—kids are having sex younger and younger, and they don’t know anything about pregnancy prevention or HIV or STI prevention,” he said.
If a parent doesn’t feel comfortable talking about sex with his or her child, Osepyan added, “then bring them [to PPF] and I’ll talk to them.”
At this point in the interview, a timer went off and Osepyan disappeared back down the hall to retrieve my test results. That earlier sense of overdramatic doom had disappeared, thanks to the HIV refresher course.
“Well, I have some good news,” Osepyan said as he returned. “You’ve tested HIV negative.”
I let out a little sigh and smiled as the tagline from a 1980s public service announcement flashed through my head: “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.”
Unfortunately, not everyone in Santa Barbara County gets to hear the same comforting news. But Osepyan said things have come a long way since the virus first showed up.
“HIV no longer has to be a death sentence; treatment has improved so much. Some of our clients only take one pill a day with minimal side effects,” he said.
As long as people stick with their medication and take care of themselves, they can live long, relatively healthy lives. And organizations like PPF offer services like housing assistance, food pantries, and transportation to doctor
appointments to make sure that happens.
Still, Osepyan said, “there’s so much stigma attached to the virus that many of our clients live in fear every day that people will find out they’re positive.
“But you have nothing to be afraid of with an HIV-positive person unless you’re having unprotected sex or sharing needles with them,” he said. “When I tell people what I do, they tend to ask me, ‘Oh, aren’t you worried that you’ll get HIV?’ And I tell them I don’t have to worry because I take all the necessary precautions.”
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 22-29, 2011.