Safe in the City

So the big bummer of the other night was that I learned that one of my friends here has recently been exposed to HIV. He is one of those guys who (from my point of view) normally does everything right - right as in plays it safe and uses a condom. But, the condom broke, so what are you supposed to do? Apparently the guy who the condom broke on was HIV positive and had no idea because he had NEVER been tested! I don't understand how we all know that HIV is this huge problem, and there are still sexually active people who have never been tested. So after the condom broke, the partner (not my friend) went for a rapid test and tested positive for HIV. This prompted my friend to then go in for post-exposure prophylaxis, so now he has to be on HIV medications for 4 weeks to hopefully prevent the virus from taking hold in his body. So now it's down to wishing and hoping. Its so ridiculously important to get tested on a regular basis if you're sexually active. Almost every major city has at least one location where testing is offered free of charge, and generally the tests are either confidential or anonymous. To find a testing site all you have to do is type in "HIV testing" and then the name of your city into Google search and up will pop a number of hits telling you exactly where to go. This is not rocket science people! And now that we have rapid testing, you can do the whole shabang, test & results in one sitting! No need to come back to the clinic a week or two later for your results anymore. So why not just go and get tested. No one has to know that you're going, but please please please share the results with your sex partners! Disclosure of your HIV status to your sex partners is the best way to ensure you are practicing safe sex. It never hurts to ask, if anything you are protecting yourself and your body - so why not ask?

So for a wrap up.
Get tested.
Let your partners know.
Use a condom.
Come on people, let's wise up a bit!

Please pray that everything will work out for my buddy. He's on week one of the PEP meds with 3 weeks to go.

I'll step off my soapbox now.