I’m here for an HIV test, I told the smiling woman behind the counter. It sounded so responsible and irresponsible all at once.
Researchers presented evidence of what they believe to be the first HIV outbreak ever among college students last week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco.
Scary and shocking, of course. But I read about the study in The New York Times and questioned its relevance to me. In a four-year period, 84 HIV cases were reported among male students at 41 different colleges in North Carolina. Seventy-three of the 84 were black; over half identified as gay.
Female, white, straight me shouldn’t be too concerned then. Right?
And maybe you’re not concerned either. Maybe the media that covered the conference were looking for a story — whatever the reason, the headlines got me thinking.
That’s how I got to the counter at the Searle Student Health Service this week. In 1997 the Evanston Health Department started offering free, anonymous testing on campus. Federal funding ran out in 2000, but the service was reinstated with the help of North Shore AIDS nonprofit Better Existence with HIV.
BEHIV now sponsors free, anonymous testing Tuesday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. at Searle. I decided to go.
But first I went to Chipotle. Couldn’t do such a nerve-wracking thing on an empty stomach, I thought. As I left I responded to a friend’s question by saying, “No, I can’t, I have to go get that HIV test.”
The woman next to us looked utterly horrified. Without pause my burrito-eating companion turned to her and said apologetically: “Oh no, it’s just for a project. A story. Journalism.”
We smiled awkwardly until she retorted, “I don’t care.” As if to say, go on with your very bad self, your irresponsible lifestyle.
A palpable stigma is attached to getting tested for HIV. It says: I have sex, I do drugs, I’m gay. It doesn’t say what it should: I’m responsible.
That’s a damn shame. Go next Tuesday and take a friend or five. Take advantage and get tested — if only for the fact that few things at NU come without a price tag.
If you do you might meet BEHIV staffer Heather Heyerdahl. When I arrived, five people were waiting to receive their results — you come back two weeks after your test to get them — and two waiting to be tested. Three more came after I was seated.
I waited less than 10 minutes before Heyerdahl called “MB.” She asked a few questions and made small talk before administering the test. It’s called OraSure; just rub a hard swab against your gums. Easy and painless.
“I’ve worked three different weeks when we actually ran out of tests,” Heyerdahl said. “In the first week of February alone, 18 people came in two hours.”
Heyerdahl, who has been testing since November, said she’s never had a week where no one came — but she doesn’t mind being busy.
“We’ll be here as long as there is a need,” Heyerdahl said. “There clearly is one.”
Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m., Searle. Hit up Chipotle first if you have to.
