Dear Colleague: June 26, 2023

June 26, 2023

Dear Colleague:

June 27 is National HIV Testing Day (NHTD), a day to emphasize the importance of HIV testing. This year’s theme, “Take the Test & Take the Next Step,” highlights the power of HIV testing to give people the information they need to make decisions to keep themselves and their partners healthy, regardless of their test results.

If a person’s test result is positive, they can begin HIV treatment (antiretroviral therapy, or ART). People with HIV who take ART as prescribed and who get and keep an undetectable viral load (or stay virally suppressed) can live long, healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their sexual partners. If a person’s test result is negative, they can take steps to reduce their risk of getting HIV by using prevention tools like PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and condoms.

One of the overall goals of Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) is to increase knowledge of HIV status to 95% by 2025, and to maintain that level until 2030. In 2021, 87% of people with HIV knew their status. A recent article suggests that expanding HIV testing, particularly among disproportionately affected populations, may have the greatest impact on reducing new HIV infections. Making HIV testing simple and accessible is critical to achieving this goal.

CDC remains committed to collaborating with public health partners and health care providers to expand HIV testing and engage people in HIV care regardless of their test result. As part of those efforts, CDC launched Together Take Me Home, an HIV self-testing project with the goal of distributing up to 1 million free HIV self-tests over the next five years. Additionally, CDC supports innovative ways to increase access to HIV prevention and treatment. Leading up to NHTD, we invite you to join our efforts by downloading and sharing:

• HIV testing resources from CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together (Together) campaign,
• Social media content from CDC’s NHTD digital toolkit, and
• Together digital stickers from the Instagram GIPHY store.

Join the conversation by using the #HIVTestingDay and #StopHIVTogether hashtags. Health care providers can also download materials to share with patients. Together, we can help more people “Take the Test & Take the Next Step.”

Sincerely,

/Robyn Fanfair/

Robyn Neblett Fanfair, MD, MPH
Captain, USPHS
Acting Division Director
Division of HIV Prevention
National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/hiv

/Jonathan Mermin/

Jonathan H. Mermin, MD, MPH
Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS
Director
National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Stay connected: @DrMerminCDC & Connections