The Importance of an HIV Screening

HIV can only be transmitted from someone living with HIV to another person through direct contact of bodily fluids. Taking an HIV test is the only way to know your HIV status. Make it a habit to get tested every three to six months if you’re sexually active or if you inject drugs.

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The only way to know if you have HIV is to get tested. Knowing your HIV status gives you powerful information to keep you and your partner(s) healthy. Getting an HIV test is quick, easy and almost always free. Depending on the type of test used, it will involve either a quick saliva or blood test, neither of which is painful. HIV management in Scranton pa at thewrightcenter.org offers case managers to supplement medical care for patients with HIV, providing assistance with services that include accessing insurance and assisting with paperwork, finding transportation to and from medical appointments, and connecting patients to community and government resources.

It’s important to know your status. Testing is the only way to know for sure if you have HIV or not. People sometimes live for years unaware that they have it. It’s estimated over 100,000 people are living with HIV in the UK and over 4,000 people are diagnosed every year as per the source.

Of these, As per government study, 12 percent are undiagnosed and do not know about their HIV infection. If you’ve never tested, or it’s been more than a year since your last test, it’s a good idea to test now. It’s advised to test once a year – or more often if you’ve had unprotected sex with more than one partner.

If you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant, get an HIV test. As per studies, a pregnant woman with HIV can pass the virus to her baby during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. All women should be tested for HIV as early in their pregnancy as possible. The sooner you are tested and learn if you have HIV, the sooner you can start medicines that may help you stay healthy and greatly lower the chance of passing HIV to your baby.

Keep you and your partner healthy. If you have HIV and don’t know it, you’re more likely to pass it on. But if you know your status, you can make sure you and your partner are taking steps to stay healthy. For example, if you have a positive result, your partner could take PrEP while you start treatment. And if you have a negative result, you might choose to use PrEP yourself.

It takes about six months for treatment to become undetectable, you should know it. This is when the amount of virus in your blood is so low that you can’t pass it on to other people.