On World AIDS Day, Oregon Health Officials Encourage Testing

More than 7,000 Oregonians are living with HIV/AIDS in 2008, Schafer said. That number includes an estimated 1,500 people who are infected but don't yet know it

Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - Oregon state health officials are taking World AIDS Day, December 1st, as an opportunity to encourage all adults to be tested for the virus that causes AIDS.

Dr. Sean Schafer, M.D., medical epidemiologist with the Oregon Department of Human Services Public Health Division’s HIV/STD/TB Program, said voluntary, confidential testing of all adults for the human immunodeficiency virus would be highly effective in preventing new infections.

“About 25 percent of people who carry HIV/AIDS don't yet know they're infected,” Schafer said. “About half of all new infections are transmitted by people who don't know they're infected. Just the knowledge that one is infected leads to approximately a 67 percent reduction in the risky sex that can transmit the virus. That’s why testing is so important.”

More than 7,000 Oregonians are living with HIV/AIDS in 2008, Schafer said. That number includes an estimated 1,500 people who are infected but don't yet know it.

“Oregon is fortunate to have a very good system of HIV care and services and is able to facilitate care for everyone who needs or wants it,” he said.

“Now the goal is to lower the number of people who caught HIV/AIDS because a partner didn’t know he or she was a carrier.”

Dr. Mel Kohn, acting director of the Oregon State Health Division, sees HIV/AIDS as a continuing challenge.