Members of the Baker University community soon will be given the chance to take a potentially life-changing test.
The Douglas County AIDS Project will be on campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday in Harter Union to test students, faculty and staff for HIV.
DCAP will be using OraSure to test for the virus by taking an oral swab.<br/>This will be the third time DCAP has done testing on campus.This will be the third time DCAP has done testing on campus.
This will be the third time DCAP has done testing on campus.
Ruth Sarna, director of student health services, said she hopes students will get tested since it hasn’t been available on campus for a couple of years.
“Since we haven’t done it for several years, it’ll be new to the freshmen and sophomores,” she said. “And, the upperclassmen may have had a change in lifestyle or some other experiences, and they want to get tested. It’s free and important to know your status.”
Stacey Burton, education and outreach coordinator of DCAP, said results typically take about a week to come back, but usually less.
At the time of the test, participants will receive a confidential code and will be asked five or six questions.
When called with the results of their tests, they then will be asked to answer those questions again and provide their code.
“If a result is positive or inconclusive, they are asked to come in,” Burton said. “But if their results are negative, I usually say they’re in good health and people get really excited.”
Burton said about 3,000 people in Kansas are living with HIV, but Kansas has one of the lowest testing rates in the nation.
She said this is scary because one in four people who are infected with the virus don’t even know.
Debbie Guenther, coordinator of the student health and counseling center, will be helping students fill out paperwork and directing them where to go.
“The last time we had it, we had a real good response,” she said. “We had to do it twice and had over 100 students do it the first time.”
Sarna, along with Tim Hodges, director of the counseling center, will be available to offer help to students before and after testing if needed.
“It’s something that’s just very important to be aware of,” Sarna said.
“If someone has had unprotected sex or is careless about their relationship, or if they haven’t been aware of the previous history of their partner and asked those kind of questions before they get into a relationship, it’s important.”