Wednesday, June 27, 2007.
Today is National HIV Testing Day. After realizing this, I thought it would be a great way to get something out about HIV in the Deseret Morning News. So I went down to the Indian Walk In Center in downtown Salt Lake to try to take some photos of someone getting tested.
When I walked in they said that they had only 3 people that had been tested that day so they couldn’t promise anything and that because of HIPPA I couldn’t take photos of the testing center and the person’s face. We had a couple of minutes to chat before someone walked through the door. I think because of that, she realized that I truly have a passion to get information out about HIV and she was then excited about getting a photo in the paper. Soon a middle-aged man walked into the room. She asked if we could speak with him before the test. He said he would love to and he didn’t mind having his face shown. Wow. Thats amazing.
I decided to go to the Indian Walk In Center first because the numbers of HIV within the American Indian population is rising at a rapid rate and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get information out.
Brad Cuny, 44, is tested for HIV at the Indian Walk In Center in Salt Lake City Wednesday — National HIV Testing Day. Cuny, an American Indian, has not been tested in 10 years. The center has performed 250 tests in the past year and a half with no positive test results. The American Indian population is the third highest among racial and ethnic groups living with HIV and AIDS.
