Sexual Health News - Sexual Health and Behavior

HIV testing records broken around the globe on World AIDS Day

By Christopher Lynch, MD Dec. 03, 2012
In the advent of World AIDS Day on December 1, a clinic located in the Soho neighborhood of London, England, has broken its own record for the amount of HIV tests given in a single day. According to the BBC, health workers from clinics in Chelsea and Westminster came together over the weekend to test 745 people over the course of eight hours, a huge increase from last year's world record tally of 467. With HIV becoming an ever-growing problem in the U.K. and an estimated 25,000 people in the country unaware that they have the virus, the event was a major step to improve public awareness of the disease.

"Eighty percent of people who catch HIV catch it from someone who doesn't know themselves," Dr. Alan McOwen, from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, told the news outlet. "So if we can reduce undiagnosed HIV, we'll break transmission."

Six individuals ended up testing positive for the sexually transmitted disease, who were then brought in for a confirmatory test and will have other doctor's visits lined up in the future. Thankfully, those who receive treatment early on have a much better chance of surviving and living a normal life with the virus.

While this event was surely a major step forward in honor of World AIDS Day, another event in Argentina may have gone a few steps further. According to HeraldOnline.com, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in tandem with a variety of local healthcare partners, broke the Guinness World Record by conducting 3,733 free HIV tests over the course of an eight-hour period. Held in Rosario, Argentina, the event smashed the previous record of 467 (and the subsequent new record of 745) held by the British clinic and has certainly set the standard for World AIDS Day events in the years to come.
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