AHF’s Magic Johnson 14 City Free HIV Testing Caravan a ‘Watershed Moment’ in Evolution of Testing Process
LA to DC: AHF’s Successful Three Week, 4339 Mile Free HIV Testing Caravan Visited Hard-hit Southern US Cities; Worked with Respected Local Community Agencies and Provided 727 Free HIV Tests
By: AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Washington - June 26, 2009
In an effort to raise local and national awareness about the importance—and ease—of HIV testing and to challenge attitudes about moving toward a streamlined model of HIV testing and counseling, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is proud to report on the successful completion of its recent and ambitious three week, 14 city AHF Magic Johnson HIV Testing Caravan which arrived in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 27th—National HIV Testing Day.
Upon arriving in Washington over the weekend, AHF’s HIV testing caravan hosted two free HIV testing events in conjunction with respected local partners: one testing event took place at the District’s popular Caribbean Carnival on Saturday and Sunday; the other, featuring one of AHF’s popular Magic Johnson Mobile Testing Units, took place at the Housing and Urban Development-owned (HUD) Atlantic Terrace Apartment Complex in the Washington Highlands neighborhood (SE, Ward 8). Local partners in the District of Columbia HIV testing events included the Caribbean Carnival organizers, City-Gate, Peaceoholics, and the Carl Vogel Center, an HIV/AIDS testing and treatment referral center.
Throughout the three week, 4339 mile trip, AHF’s testing team performed a total of 727 free HIV tests across the country and identified ‘preliminary’ HIV positive’ individuals in Houston, New Orleans and Columbia, SC. Those individuals found to be HIV positive were immediately linked with local partner agencies for confirmatory testing of their HIV status as well as for linkage to medical care and treatment.
“AHF’s Magic Johnson HIV Testing Caravan will be seen as a watershed moment in the evolution of HIV testing in the U.S. and in challenging outdated attitudes about more cumbersome, bureaucracy-driven HIV testing and counseling models currently used in many communities nationwide,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “AHF utilizes a highly-effective, streamlined model of HIV testing and counseling, and nearly all of the local agencies we partnered with along the way in many of these hard-hit communities were amazed at the success of our collaborative testing process. I want to thank the team of AHF testing counselors who participated in this sometimes arduous cross-country caravan, as well as those local community and HIV/AIDS agencies with whom we partnered to make this testing caravan such a tremendous success.”
“It was a privilege to take part in and shepherd the AHF/Magic Johnson Testing Caravan on our cross country testing journey and to work with many of our local partners, who we saw firsthand working tirelessly on the ground in their communities every day along the way,” said Azul Mares-del Grasso, Field Services Manager for AHF’s Public Health Division and leader of the testing caravan. “Working together, we surpassed expectations in many of these communities: Phoenix, our partners at The Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS thought we might test 25 individuals—we tested 54; in Albuquerque, our partners at the New Mexico AIDS Services predicted we would test 15 individuals—we tested 45; at a parking lot of a Kroger Supermarket in Atlanta, we tested 71 individuals; and on this past Saturday, National HIV Testing Day, we tested 81 individuals at a low-income housing complex in the South East section of Washington in just four hours. The streamlined testing and counseling model we employ works extremely efficiently, and nearly all of the individuals we test have a very favorable reaction to the entire updated testing experience.”
In addition, the testing caravan garnered a significant amount of media coverage, with more than 35 media and press outlets (and counting) covering the testing events in cities along the way. Coverage included local television stories in all but one city; major print articles in the Times Picayune in New Orleans and the Atlanta Journal Constitution and numerous radio stories and weekly newspaper articles. In addition, CNN Espanol interviewed the testing counselors in Atlanta for ‘Salud,’ a popular weekly health program set to air in early July in the U.S. and Latin America.
The testing caravan was an ambitious effort to boost AIDS awareness and HIV prevention and testing efforts in some of the hardest hit regions of the United States. The caravan included one of AHF’s popular AHF Mobile HIV Testing Units, which are named in honor of and partnership with HIV positive basketball legend Earvin Magic Johnson, Jr. and actor and AIDS advocate Blair Underwood. The tour kicked-off in Los Angeles on June 8th and culminated with the caravan’s arrival in DC on Saturday. AHF is permanently relocating one of the mobile testing units from Los Angeles to D.C., to provide free, easy-to-access rapid HIV testing in various neighborhoods throughout the nation's capital, where it was recently reported that the HIV prevalence rate has surged past 3%-higher than in Lagos, Nigeria.
"While making initial plans to transport our brand new, state-of-the-art AHF/Magic Johnson Mobile Testing Unit from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, we hit upon the idea that this cross country road trip presented a unique opportunity to raise awareness about HIV testing, prevention and treatment through specific testing events and community outreach in cities and states along the way," said AHF’s Weinstein.
As a result, AHF partnered with respected local AIDS and community groups in Phoenix, Albuquerque, Houston, New Orleans, Jackson, Mississippi; Pensacola, Florida; Montgomery, Alabama; Jacksonville, Atlanta, Columbia, South Carolina; Charlotte, Norfolk and Washington, DC to host free HIV testing and media events in each of those communities. At the end of the tour, the AHF/Magic Johnson Mobile Testing Unit will remain and operate in Washington, where AHF will also open a free AIDS treatment clinic—its first in that city—later this summer.
"The beauty of these free mobile HIV testing vans is that AIDS Healthcare Foundation operates them right in the heart of the community-in parking lots of popular retail stores, nearby hip nightclubs and gathering spots, at church events-and they provide the testing, counseling and results all in one session, so people get their test results right away on the same day," said Blair Underwood, who attended the Los Angeles kick-off event. "It is important that people learn how to avoid becoming infected with HIV; or if they are infected, know their HIV status, and seek medical treatment, if needed. People really need to know their HIV status today. These HIV testing vans provide that opportunity for free in a friendly, no hassle way."
During the testing tour, AIDS Healthcare Foundation also presented grants to each of the local partners AHF collaborated with along the way. And throughout the course of the 4,339 mile, three week cross country HIV testing tour, HIV testing counselors and AHF staffers also supplied a steady stream of updates, videos and images via new media: YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter postings from along the route, interviews with local partners, government officials and, when appropriate and available, interviews with people who were tested on the mobile unit.
• http://www.youtube.com/aidshealth
• http://www.facebook/aidshealthcare
• http://www.twitter.com/freehivtest
• http://www.myspace.com/aidshealth
• http://www.freehivtest.net/testingusa
A fully outfitted 34 foot HIV/AIDS mobile medical treatment clinic that is operated by AHF's Positive Healthcare in rural areas of north Florida and in the Panhandle joined the HIV testing caravan starting in New Orleans. The van, affectionately dubbed, 'Bertha,' traveled on with the AHF/Magic Johnson Testing Unit through the remaining Southern and Eastern states and on to Washington. This mobile clinic will serve as an additional backup HIV testing van along the route. Bertha, however, returned to service as a mobile medical clinic in Florida after the National HIV Testing event in Washington on June 27th.
HIV Statistics in the United States
“Last August, the Centers for Disease Control released new data showing an alarming 40% increase in HIV infections in the US—56,000 new cases each year up from a previous estimate of 40,000 new cases annually,” said Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Director of AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Public Health Division. “There is no doubt that the South is disproportionately affected by HIV and without adequate resources. On our trip we want to meet our colleagues in these cities, support agencies in providing testing and do what we can to raise awareness about the genuine need for HIV testing and treatment throughout the region. The number of new infections in the U.S. is absolutely unacceptable. We have a responsibility to do what we must to help those with HIV know their status and get linked into care.”
According to an HIV/AIDS Policy Fact Sheet produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation (“The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the United States”, updated, February, 2009, with statistics through 2007)
• Ten states account for 71% of AIDS cases reported since the beginning of the epidemic. Nine of these states also rank in the top 10 for newly reported cases. Three of the states that the AHF/Magic Johnson Mobile Testing HIV testing Unit will visit on its tour—Texas, Florida, and Georgia—are among these top ten states; together, they account for 21% of the nation’s reported AIDS cases through the end of 2007—or 216,199 cumulative AIDS cases.
The Kaiser Fact Sheet also pointed out:
• (AIDS) case rates per 100,000 provide a different measure of the epidemic’s impact, since they reflect the concentration of cases after accounting for differences in population size across states. The District of Columbia has the highest AIDS case rate in the nation. Seven of the top 10 states by AIDS case rate are in the South. The AHF/Magic Johnson Mobile HIV Testing Unit tour will travel to and do HIV testing events in five of these Southern states and areas: Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and the District of Columbia.
