June 27th is National HIV Testing Day, a day to encourage HIV testing, knowing your status, and continuing to keep up with your sexual health. This year, the National HIV Testing Day theme is “Level up your self-love: check your status.” NACCHO recognizes that knowing your HIV status is one of the most crucial aspects of self-love and self-care. Knowing your HIV status opens up several opportunities to maintain your sexual & overall health, whether it’s the possibility of accessing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention if you are HIV-negative or starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) and working towards an undetectable status if your test is reactive. Either way, knowing your HIV status is the ultimate form of compassion and kindness you can show yourself.
NACCHO has compiled several resources to help you commemorate National HIV Testing Day. On this day, let’s remember to show the same compassion and love to ourselves that we show to others. Getting tested for HIV and taking the proper actions to care for our sexual health are two very significant ways to do so.
- For more information regarding this year’s theme, check out CDC’s National HIV Testing Day page. CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together page is another resource with insightful information regarding HIV testing and treatment.
- Check out Walgreens partnership with Greater than HIV, a KFF initiative, to offer free rapid HIV testing in more than 550 Walgreen stores on June 27th in the largest coordinated National HIV Testing Day event.
- Join HRSA’s Innovative HIV Care Strategies for Individuals Who Are Not In Care or Newly Diagnosed With HIV Webinar on June 27
- This webinar, which will take place June 27, 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET, will feature two groundbreaking interventions that are transforming HIV care: Linkage, Integration, Navigation, and Comprehensive Services (LINCS) and HIV Clinical Pharmacist Services. These initiatives address specific challenges faced by people with HIV and are revolutionizing strategies for providing comprehensive care and support. Register here.
- Log in or create an account to check out free e-learning courses on OraQuick ADVANCE Rapid HIV Antibody Test and the Alere Determine HIV 1/2 Ag/Ab Combo on the NCSD Learning Center. In these courses, participants can learn how the test works, restrictions and warnings, safety precautions, limitations of the test, sample collection and interpretation of test results.
This National HIV Testing Day, let’s encourage each other to nourish and care for one another. While knowing your status is one way to do this, we also hope that you take time to check in with yourselves, support community members living with HIV, and most importantly, dedicate this day to self-love and self-care.
