NEW YORK, Jun 24, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A New York City initiative to
increase HIV testing in the Bronx has boosted testing by 28 percent, city health
officials said.
"The Bronx Knows," a borough-wide effort that involved clinics, hospitals and
community organizations, provided voluntary human immunodeficiency virus tests
to nearly 160,000 Bronx residents in the past year.
"Knowing your status is one of the best things you can do to stop the spread of
HIV," Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City's health commissioner, said in a
statement. "Bronx residents are taking the lead by getting tested. We thank the
many groups and healthcare providers who helped make this possible, and
encourage all New Yorkers who don't yet know their status, to get tested."
People who test negative can be reassured and learn how to stay that way by
practicing safer sex and people who test positive can get the treatment they
need and take even greater precautions to avoid spreading the infection to
others, Farley added.
Some 3,787 New Yorkers were diagnosed with HIV in 2007 and 921 of them were
already sick with AIDS by the time they learned their status -- meaning they had
gone undiagnosed for an average of 10 years, health department officials said.
In the Bronx, 876 residents were diagnosed with HIV in 2007, and a quarter of
them were already sick with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Bronx residents
account for nearly a fourth of the city's HIV diagnoses and more than a quarter
of HIV-related deaths each year.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International