To go around bureaucratic state laws on consent, 40 emergency rooms and storefront clinics would provide voluntary testing procedure. Dr. Thomas Friden, the city's health commissioner, explained than anyone admitted to an emergency room for other ailments would be asked if they are willing to undergo an HIV test as well.
The prevalence of poverty in Bronx has prevented its residents from availing of the HIV test. Early detection of the HIV virus could prevent it from becoming a full blown AIDS case if given medication.
Bronx has 1.3 million residents. Forty percent or 830,000 of its adult population between the ages 18 to 64 underwent HIV testing in 2007. But the remaining 250,000 residents have never taken the HIV exam. The city will shoulder the $12 cost of the laboratory test, said Dr. Monica Sweeney, city assistant health commissioner for HIV prevention.
Some residents have given support to the program, to officially start Friday, with several sectors even asking that it be extended to the rest of New York City. Other residents have expressed apprehension it would reinforce the stereotype of Bronx as an unsafe community.
