Amy Nunn, assistant professor of medicine, is currently promoting HIV testing in Philadelphia with a campaign called “Do One Thing, Change Everything.” She reflected on National HIV Testing Day (June 27):

“Decades of HIV prevention efforts focused on risk behaviors have helped increase knowledge and change attitudes about HIV/AIDS. However, in many U.S. urban communities, HIV infection rates surpass those of Sub-Saharan Africa. In many cities across the country, insufficient resources reach the most heavily impacted neighborhoods. A mounting body of evidence shows that testing and treatment are our single most effective HIV prevention interventions developed today. When people test positive, they reduce their risk-taking behaviors and those who take treatment are 96 percent less likely to transmit the virus. In order to address the nation’s alarming rates of racial disparities in HIV infection, we must redouble our efforts to promote HIV testing and to immediately link those who test positive into treatment and care services. These efforts should be dramatically scaled in the most highly impacted communities of the United States.”