Office of National AIDS Policy Blog

Take Action: Get Tested

Today, in a statement, the President highlighted the importance of HIV testing:

"Today is National HIV Testing Day, when we encourage people across the United States to get tested. Early detection and treatment for HIV saves lives, and yet over half of adults in the United States have never been tested. Nearly one in five people living with HIV in this country doesn’t know his or her status. That delays treatment,  increases the risk of transmission, and sets us back in our fight  against the epidemic. 

Getting an HIV test is easier and faster than ever. And this past April, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended that everyone between the ages of 15 and 65 get screened for HIV as part of their routine health care. That means, under the Affordable Care Act, new health care plans will be required to cover HIV testing without any additional out-of-pocket costs.

But more Americans still need to decide to take the test.  We know from experience here at home and around the world that HIV testing opens the door to treatment, reduces the spread of the virus, and helps people lead longer, healthier lives.  That’s why, on a trip to Africa in 2006, Michelle and I were tested for HIV – because there should be no shame or stigma associated with knowing your status.  And if we each do our part by getting tested – and encourage our friends and family to do the same – then we will move closer to an AIDS-free generation."

As the President pointed out, getting tested is about taking action – so take the time and get tested.

To see a video from me on the importance of getting tested, click here. To see a video from the President’s trip to Africa in 2006, click here.

Ask your healthcare provider for the test. Or find the nearest HIV testing center to you.

Grant Colfax, MD is the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day Bulletin

Editor's Note: This is a cross post from the aids.gov blog. You can find the original post here.

The implementation of scientifically proven HIV prevention strategies is helping to reduce the number of new infections — the annual HIV infection rate globally fell by 22 percent from 2001 to 2011 — but a great deal more must be done. Significant scale-up of proven HIV prevention strategies coupled with the discovery of new HIV treatment and prevention interventions are needed to achieve an end to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. A safe, effective and durable HIV vaccine is an essential cornerstone to the long-term strategy to achieve this goal.

Developing a safe and effective HIV vaccine has been a long and difficult process largely because HIV has proven to be an especially tough target. Recent developments with the HVTN 505 clinical trial and analyses from the HVTN 503 “Phambili” vaccine study have been disappointing, but they also provided clear answers about investigational vaccine strategies that, ultimately, were not effective. Still, the new directions for HIV vaccines that have been recently initiated define our future path and will be pursued.

Among many projects, scientists continue to explore findings from the RV 144 HIV vaccine study in Thailand, which, in 2009, provided proof-of-concept that an HIV vaccine can afford a modest level of protection. Ongoing research related to the Thai trial is providing important information about human immune responses and other factors that may explain why the investigational vaccine protected some trial volunteers from HIV infection but not others. Such data will help advance researchers’ understanding of HIV’s structure and vulnerabilities and help guide the development of future HIV vaccine candidates. Large-scale investigational vaccine clinical trials designed to build on the RV 144 results and create a more robust and durable level of protection are expected to begin in two-to-three years in South Africa.

In basic research, scientists are making important discoveries about broadly neutralizing antibodies capable of disabling a wide range of HIV strains when tested in the laboratory setting. For example, NIAID scientists recently charted the co-evolution of HIV and a strong antibody response in an HIV-infected study participant, who is one of the 20 percent of HIV-infected individuals who naturally develops broadly neutralizing antibodies to the virus after several years of infection. Their findings could help identify which proteins to use in an investigational vaccine to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies more quickly. In another advance, a team of NIH scientists recently developed a new tool to identify broadly neutralizing antibodies from blood samples, which could help speed HIV vaccine research.