Outreach Centers Promote Early Detection Of AIDS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

shows more than 40 percent of HIV-positive Americans do not know they are infected. That is why many AIDS Outreach Centers promote early detection.

Clifton Cole is one of dozens of people who voluntarily come in for HIV testing at the Cape Fear Regional Bureau for Community Action.

"Anytime I get a chance, I'm going to get tested and use protected sex at all times," he says.

The Bureau for Community Action began HIV testing a little more than a year ago, now hundreds of people come to learn more about AIDS and early detection. The resource center is the brainchild of director Ashley Rozier, who strives to make people who have questions about HIV and AIDS feel at home.

"On a daily basis, we might have 150 phone calls into the office, people asking questions about HIV," Rozier says.

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows people are not asking enough questions. It found more than 40 percent of HIV-positive Americans do not know they are infected until it is too late.

"Many people are just not going to go the health department until they're very ill. The key is intervening in the early stages, so people can live longer and healthier lives," Rozier says.

The study was based on interviews of patients diagnosed with AIDS between 1990 and 1999. It was presented earlier this week at an HIV prevention conference in Atlanta.