National HIV Testing Day Is June 27th, HIV Awareness Efforts Increased

National HIV Testing Day is promoted by the CDC, AHF, and ETAF.

Raising HIV Testing awareness can drop new annual infections from 50,000 to 5,000.

June 27th will be National HIV Testing Day. Presently, in the United States, over 1.2 million people are HIV positive. Statistics show that close to 156,000 people do not know they are infected with the disease.

This roughly means that currently, after decades of awareness and attempts to fight off the disease, just in the United States, roughly one in 270 people is HIV positive and one in 2,000 people is HIV positive and but is not aware of it.

Also according to the statistics, over 50,000 will be infected with HIV in the United States this year alone. Between the end of 2015 and the end of 2016 over 14,000 of the people infected with HIV will die.

The numbers all indicate that even now, the United States of America is slowly losing ground in the battle against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, over 90 percent of all new annual HIV infection could be entirely prevented with timely testing and diagnosis and proper connection to medical care who can aid in suppressing the virus.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, otherwise known as the AHF, is the largest global AIDS research and combat organization. Through their extended support, June 27th is being regarded as National HIV Testing Day.

The AHF wants to formally commemorate June 27th with the aid of several events, meant to atract public attention towards HIV awareness. AHF will be promoting events about HIV prevention, testing, and treatment throughout the United States for the next days to come.

The Elizabeth Taylor Foundation, also known as ETAF, was founded in 1991 and it has been helping HIV positive men and women for 25 years. With high profile endorsement, ETAF will be performing its first HIV-testing event on June 27th.

Daniel Franzese is the actor who plays Eddie, a gay volunteer at a homeless shelter who finds out he is HIV positive, in HBO’s Looking. Franzese will be participating with ETAF in hopes to raise awareness of HIV danger and to motivate people to get get tested on June 27th.

Along with Frenzese, ETAF’s event will be supported by Julie Benz, Lance Bass, Frances Fisher, and author Kyle Pratt, to only name a few.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.