Door-to-door HIV testing in Philadelphia’s most afflicted zip code
Over the next two years volunteers from the city’s health fields will knock on the doors of about 12,000 people in an effort to administer free HIV tests.
According to statistics, Philadelphia’s 19143 zip code has the highest number of AIDS/HIV cases in the city.
There are 50,000 new cases reported annually, and more than half of them are “transmitted by people who don’t know they are positive,” reports Philly.com.
“Testing has become a key prevention strategy” especially in Philadelphia where most black women don’t think they’re at risk, but “the rate of new infections for blacks is nearly 10 times that for whites” and the epidemic is “largely heterosexual.”
For more on this story visit Philly.com.
WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.