staff report
In response to increasing rates of HIV infection in Santa Clara County, the Board of Supervisors has approved plans to expand HIV/AIDS testing for high-risk populations in the county.
The Center for Disease Control and local estimates show that approximately 25 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS are unaware of their condition. In Santa Clara County that would be 898 people.
“Expanded testing is necessary to reach the 25 percent of the population unaware that they are infected with HIV/AIDS,” said Santa Clara County Health Officer Marty Fenstersheib, MD, MPH, in a written statement. “Until an individual knows their condition, there isn’t any way to treat them.”
Once the plan is implemented, expanded testing will occur between January and October 2007.
To begin implementing the program, the Public Health Department will select three-to-five community-based organizations that are familiar with at-risk populations and have the capacity to administer rapid HIV testing and provide counseling.
Priority at-risk populations for the new testing sites will include: men who have sex with men, female sexual partners of men who have sex with men, and transgender persons and injection drug users. Within this population, target groups are people of color, sex workers and youth. Geographic areas that have been identified as a priority are: the City of San Jose; North County residents in Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Los Altos, which make up the second highest percentage of reported cases behind San Jose; and South County residents, which currently make up the smallest number of reported HIV cases to date, have greatest barriers to accessing test sites.
As part of the $375,000 HIV/AIDS plan, supervisors allocated $75,000 in funding for the Public Health Department to conduct social marketing. More accurate numbers of those living with HIV/AIDS will allow the County to receive appropriate federal and state funding for services. “This effort will reach across cultural, economic and social boundaries,” said Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, Vice Chair of the Health and Hospital Committee, in a written statement. “It will help to make our community safer.”
