24-Hour Free HIV Testing Marathon at Hollywood ‘Out of the Closet’ Store Marks World AIDS Day
LA’s Power 106FM Radio Teams With AHF in Night of Round-the-Clock Free Rapid HIV Testing Starting Saturday, November 29th at 4:00pm
Hollywood Event is Part of AHF’s Global ‘One Million Tests’ Campaign; 1,000 Organizations in 72 Countries Will Test One Million People for HIV by Monday--World AIDS Day
By: AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Hollywood, Ca - November 27, 2008
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest AIDS group in the US and which currently provides more than 14,000 free HIV and STD tests annually in California via its community-based testing programs through AHF’s Public Health Division, is hosting a 24-hour, round-the-clock marathon of free, rapid HIV testing beginning this Saturday November 29th starting at 4pm at its ‘Out of the Closet’ Hollywood thrift store and testing location. The HIV testing marathon is being held as part of AHF’s ‘One Million Tests World AIDS Day 2008’ campaign, a worldwide initiative to test a total of one million people in conjunction with the observance of this year’s World AIDS Day. In an effort to raise awareness about the event and HIV testing, LA’s Power 106 FM radio station will have its mobile van broadcasting live from the Hollywood testing location 6pm to 8pm Saturday.
“There are currently as many as 15,000 HIV positive individuals in Los Angeles County who do not know their HIV status because they have never been tested for the virus,” said Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Director of AHF’s Public Health Division. “Through this marathon World AIDS Day testing event at Hollywood’s Out of the Closet site, we are trying to normalize and de-stigmatize the entire process of HIV testing so that people look at testing as a routine part of health care. We know that knowledge of one’s HIV status really helps us break the chain of new infections, as people take steps to reduce the risk of passing on their infection to others once they know their own sero-status. With this innovative round-the-clock testing event, we are proud to be a part of AHF’s larger worldwide ‘One Million Tests’ campaign. I strongly urge people with any questions about their own HIV status to come out and join us and get tested this weekend.”
The Hollywood Out of the Closet thrift store will also be open for retail sales during the entire 24-hour overnight testing marathon. As an added incentive to entice participants to the overnight testing event, all patrons at the Hollywood Out of the Closet store will enjoy a 24% discount on all thrift store purchases between the hours of 8:00pm Saturday and 8:00am Sunday—hours when the retail store (and testing site) are usually closed. In addition, the first one hundred people getting tested during the event will also receive promotional tee shirts, flashing key chains and light up necklaces.
The ‘One Million Tests’ World AIDS Day 2008 Global Testing Campaign has been organized by AIDS Healthcare Foundation in coalition with hundreds of global partners mobilizing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local and national governments, international relief agencies, faith-based organizations, civil society, the media for a collaborative effort to conduct ONE MILLION Free HIV Tests during an extended World AIDS Day week commencing on November 26th and culminating on December 1st.
