Anonymous HIV Testing

[Health Nurse]

All HIV testing in BC is confidential but did you know that you can have HIV testing done completely anonymously?

The BC Centre for Disease Control is coordinating a pilot project where you get a special HIV testing code and only you will know the result. You don’t have to give your name, or any of your contact information and you don’t need a Care Card.

Check it out! http://bit.ly/1cRxBzY

HN
www.smartsexresource.com

 

[Thatotherguy]

As a matter of fact I did know about that! Personally I've never felt the need to hide my identity when getting tested, but I think it's a fantastic program to encourage testing for those who are concerned about anyone else knowing the results. The only thing that I was confused about when I first heard about this program recently was that I had thought that the Bute St clinic had been doing something similar for a long time. Can you comment on how this pilot project is different? Or did I misunderstand the person I talked to at Bute St a few years ago?

 

[Health Nurse]

Hi thatotherguy

The pilot project is different in that you just get a number code. In the future they will expand this type of testing to the rest of the province. It’s really designed for medical clinics that need you to have an MSP card (with your real name on it) for free services. They also think it will be helpful in small communities where your friends and relatives may work in health care.

Bute Street is a free clinic like our main STI clinic on west 12th ave. This means we don’t need to see any MSP cards or health insurance for any type of service.

People just need to provide us with a name, date of birth and a gender so that the tests can be done at our lab. Everything is confidential and most people give us their real details as well as contact telephone numbers and email addresses. It’s really good for people that want to be anonymous as you can make up a fake name, fake date of birth and give us no contact details.

Given this the Bute street clinic and the STI clinic on 12th ave have always had a way for people to do anonymous testing. The pilot project will allow this anonymous HIV testing to take place at other places in the province.

We are also working on a way to do STI testing online, hopefully this will be up and running by the end of the year.


HN
www.smartsexresource.com