The George Washington University Student Health Service saw a 22 percent jump in students requesting HIV tests this academic year.
Six-hundred-thirty students have been tested for HIV by SHS this academic year, compared to 516 tests over the duration of last year.
University Physician and Medical Director of SHS, Isabel Goldenberg, and the Clinical Program Coordinator, Susan Haney, credited the spike to the increased “awareness in our community of the availability of the test,” in a joint statement.
Goldenberg and Haney declined to release the number of the 630 students that tested positive for HIV. The office does not release the results of any tests performed on campus, they said.
“Tests are done confidentially in the service and anonymously when the program is outside our service,” Goldenberg and Haney said.
When someone is tested, “[SHS] will do education about transmission of the disease and provide support to maintain protective behavior,” Goldenberg and Haney said.
Any student who does test positive is referred to GW Hospital’s Division of Infectious Diseases, part of GW Hospital.
Read the full story at the GW Hatchet.
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