U. AIDS test site has checked 100

None have tested HIV-positive, official says The University's free and anonymous AIDS test site, which opened two months ago, is drawing a full schedule of patients from inside and outside the University community. A recent survey conducted of the site yielded good results, according to Evelyn Wiener, the University's HIV-AIDS task force services committee chairperson. Wiener estimated that over 100 people have been tested at the clinic, which is housed at the Dental School at 40th and Irving streets. None have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Students comprise 95 percent of the clients using the site, which is co-run by the University's Student Health Services and the Women's Anonymous Test Site of Hahnemann University. But clients in general, Wiener said, have ranged from adolescents to middle-aged people. Graduate students living off campus are the main group going in for tests, she said. Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta said the site is living up to expectations. "We hoped it would be used," he said. "I think it's very positive, to the extent that responding to HIV can be positive." Moneta said it is difficult to assess whether or not there are more students wanting to be tested than schedule availability presently allows. "We're getting everybody in roughly within the week that [they] call," he said. "If at any point the demand exceeds the number of hours we have available, we'll expand [the times the site is open.]" Currently, the site is open Thursdays by appointment. In the site survey, Wiener said, students were very satisfied with the site. Among factors they were asked to evaluate were convenience in location, scheduling and their encounter with their counselors. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being he highest, the majority of responses among 60 students polled by the site revealed high satisfaction, with responses averaging 4.88. Pre-test counseling was rated 4.9, ease of scheduling 4.73, convenience of site 4.75 and privacy of site 4.75. Privacy of the site is an important factor to its clients, who rely on the site's anonymity. Prior to the site's opening, students could get confidential testing for the HIV virus at Student Health. However, when a patient receives confidential testing, Student Health maintains a record of the patient's name and residence. Anonymous testing, by contrast, is a method of testing in which no record of the person's name is maintained.

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