Testing & Treatment

The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested.  The CDC recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care. Knowing your HIV status gives you powerful information to help you take steps to keep you and your partner healthy. This section answers some of the most common questions related to HIV testing, including the types of tests available, where to get one, and what to expect when you get tested.

3 Reasons To Get Retested

  1. You should get retested if you have had anal or vaginal sex without a condom, or if you have shared injection drug equipment with someone who has HIV.
  2. The CDC suggests retesting because of the “window period.” This is the length of time between exposure to HIV and when HIV shows up on a test. This can take up to three months. So if your test result is negative, protect yourself and get retested after three months.
  3. Retesting can help you feel more confident about your health.

Additional Resources

  • CDC.gov is a great source of information on the spread of HIV, its symptoms, and treatment solutions. The website also has a search tool to help you find convenient testing near you.
  • The federal government manages a site, HIV.gov, that discusses ways to end the HIV epidemic and includes a listing of HIV awareness days.
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a website with a focus on AIDS treatment solutions, including clinical trials and FDA approved drugs.
  • Pregnant women who test positive for HIV can find reliable information on managing the virus during pregnancy and delivery at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists website.

CDC Social Marketing Campaigns

The State of Nevada promotes and supports the following CDC social marketing campaigns:

    • Doing It is a new national HIV testing and prevention campaign designed to motivate all adults to get tested for HIV and know their status. As part of the Act Against AIDS initiative, Doing It delivers the message that HIV testing should be a part of everyone’s regular health routine to keep ourselves and our community healthy. He’s doing it. She’s doing it. We’re doing it. YOU should be doing it, too.
    • Let’s Stop HIV Together raises awareness about HIV and its impact on the lives of all Americans, and fights stigma by showing that persons with HIV are real people — mothers, fathers, friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, partners, wives, husbands, and co-workers.
    • Start Talking. Stop HIV. seeks to reduce new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men by encouraging open discussion about a range of HIV prevention strategies and related sexual health issues between sex partners.
    • HIV Treatment Works features people from across the United States who are living with HIV, talking about how sticking with care and treatment helps them stay healthy, protect others, and live longer, healthier lives.
    • Prescribe HIV Prevention An initiative encouraging health care providers to use PrEP and PEP to prevent new HIV infections.
    • Transforming Health  is a  campaign to help health care providers reduce new HIV infections among transgender people, particularly transgender women of color, and improve the health of transgender people who are living with HIV.
    • Prevention IS Care encourages health care providers who treat patients with HIV to screen their HIV-infected patients for risky transmission behaviors, and reiterate to HIV-infected patients the importance of protecting themselves and others by reducing risky behaviors.
    • HIV Screening. Standard Care encourages primary care providers, gynecologists, and other health care providers to promote routine HIV testing during patient visits.
 

Content Source: HIV.gov  & Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.