HIV Testing in the Bronx

In the city I reside in, “change” is a bad, bad word, mainly due to the very conservative older members of the city council who have served for years and years and vow to keep this city as it is with no opportunity for growth in any sector. Then there are cities like New York where growth is encouraged and initiatives are taken at a moments notice when change is deemed necessary. Take for instance the recent report issued only last week that revealed New York City had an above average rate of unsafe sexual behavior. Within a day, the New York City Department of Health released its own response to this damaging report. Their initiative will strive to provide HIV testing for every adult residing in the Bronx borough between the ages of 18 to 64 in a span of three years.

In the report that documented the unsafe sexual behavior, Thomas Freidan, the health commissioner, stated that the biggest concern is with men who have homosexual sexual relations and who have had more than five different sexual partners within a year’s time. Of this group, “36 percent did not use condoms consistently. This is a core group which is at high risk for getting, and spreading, HIV.”

One reason that the Bronx borough responded so quickly to this report is that each year, over one-third of those patients who die from AIDS in New York City come from the Bronx. In addition, a quarter of those people who are currently afflicted with HIV in New York City live in the Bronx. This is over 21,000 people. While the Bronx already boasts the highest HIV tested population of all the boroughs (approximately 68 percent), the new initiative will strive to provide tests for all those residents who have never been tested (approximately 250,000 residents) and who may unknowingly be harboring and, thus, spreading the virus. According to the president of the Bronx borough, Adolfo Carrion, Jr., “New infections are still occurring at epidemic rates, especially among women and people of color.” City officials have declared that one in four people who are afflicted with HIV in the Bronx do not even realize they are carriers and that one in four people who get positively tested for HIV come to discover that they are already living with full-blown AIDS.

A perfect example of this is Soraya Pares who works at the Bronx Health Center as a program coordinator for the prevention of HIV. Almost 18 years ago, in 1991, she discovered she had HIV when the daughter she recently gave birth to tested positive for HIV. She admits she never gave HIV a second thought before testing positive and always felt it was a disease that happened to other people. She is thrilled with the new initiative because she feels it targets those in the Bronx community who are in denial about HIV being a widespread epidemic. She states, “It’s not just the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered and the IV drug users. Regular people also get infected. It’s the same disease.” As one who has lived with the virus for 18 years, she goes on to say, “If you know your status, it’s possible to have a fruitful life and still have anything and everything your heart desired.”