ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — The local medical community -- along with health officials around the world -- are raising awareness about human immunodeficiency virus, on this National HIV Testing Day. The lead nurse navigator for the emergency room at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital -- Michelle Parmentier -- says there is no better day to learn your HIV status.
"It's a day to encourage people to get tested for HIV in a way that according to the CDC is comfortable for them," Parmentier tells KMOX. "That could mean at your provider's office, if you happen to be in our emergency room, or doing a screening program. You could go by yourself, with a friend, a partner or a family member. The idea is that everybody who is 13 to 64 should get tested for HIV at least once in their lifetime. People at risk of course should get tested more frequently."
So how serious is the concern about HIV?
"In the most recent State of the Union address, HIV was targeted as a priority," said Parmentier. "Not only the World Health Organization but now the United States is hoping to eliminate HIV transmission by 2030." "Missouri, specifically rural Missouri, is identified as a high risk state," said Parmentier. "That's partly because of our lack of access to care. So it is super important that Missourians get tested because everybody who has ever had sex, or everybody who has ever shared a needle, could be at risk for this disease." Parmentier says the medical community today sees HIV in a different light than it did just a couple of decades ago.
"People used to associate HIV -- which would progress to AIDS -- as a death sentence," said Parmentier. "Now people can take a couple pills a day and have about the same quality of life as if they didn't have HIV at all. People who are on their medication are really unlikely to, as long as their get their viral loads down, pass HIV to another person. Additionally, we have medications like PREP where people who have a lot of risk factors for HIV can take a pill and decrease their likelihood of getting HIV."
About 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV, and 1 in 7 of them don't know they have it. The CDC says people with HIV need to get a diagnosis as soon as possible so they can get treatment. The only way to know if you have HIV, the CDC says, is to get tested.