“It’s a great service, in terms of preventing the spread of HIV.”
William Short, M.D.
William Short, M.D., works in the division of infectious diseases at Thomas Jefferson University.
Getting tested
Want an HIV test but don’t know where to go? ActionAIDS offers several local testing sites, all with walk-in hours. Testing is free and completely confidential. For more information, call ActionAIDS’ testing info line: 267-940-5515.
ActionAIDS Center City
1026 Arch Street
ActionAIDS North
2641 North 6th Street
Services available in Spanish and French
ActionAIDS West
3901 Market Street
Washington West Project
1201 Locust Street
William Way
Community Center
1315 Spruce Street
With new HIV infections in Philadelphia occurring at a rate more than five times the national average, preventative health is taking a front seat in the fight against AIDS.
Encouraging someone who is HIV-positive to inform partners they’ve been exposed to the disease — before they can pass it on — is a crucial component.
“From a medical perspective, we want to know soon if someone has HIV so they’re not showing up later in the course of the illness, when it’s harder to treat. But when I put my public health hat on, treatment is secondary,” explains William Short, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Thomas Jefferson University. “The public health approach is prevention: Identifying those who are infected and unaware, and may be transmitting it.”
Who needs to know
Through its partner services program, Philadelphia’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO) helps newly diagnosed people figure out how long they’ve been infected with HIV and, based on that calculation, who they might have put at risk.
Step two is informing at-risk partners they could be infected, and should get tested. An AACO social worker will sit down with the person diagnosed with HIV and a person he or she may have infected to help break the news and answer questions.
Protecting patients
Anonymous partner notification services are also available, for someone wary of a violent or abusive reaction: AACO will get in touch with at-risk partners without letting them know who passed along their names.
“It’s a great service, in terms of preventing the spread of HIV. It’s a significant advance in preventative health,” says Short, of Thomas Jefferson University. “Unfortunately, most people have no idea about it.”
Protect against HPV
STD. Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted disease. At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women contract it.
HPV can show up as genital warts and can also lead to cervical cancer. Fortunately, there’s a
vaccine, Gardasil, to help prevent it.
“The vaccine protects against four different strains of HPV infection: the two most common strains that cause genital warts, and the two most common strains that cause cervical cancer,” says Judith A. O’Donnell, M.D., director of the department of infection prevention and control at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
But Gardasil isn’t a substitute for regular doctor visits, cautions O’Donnell. “There are approximately 40 different types or strains of HPV, so the vaccine does not offer full protection against all HPVinfections,” she said. It’s approved for women ages 9 to 26.
