SNHD hosts health, HIV resource fair aiming to decrease HIV cases in Clark County

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The number of HIV cases is on the rise in Clark County. Tuesday morning, the Southern Nevada Health District held an event with community partners to offer resources and free testing.

“I knew someone that had a longtime family doctor.  They went in for their annual and said can you also do an HIV and STI screening and the provider immediately said oh what’s going on? Why do you need that? Cause you’re married,” Chris Reynolds, an HIV services director at ASP Cares pharmacy, said. “He said I would never ask that provider again because he shamed me because I just wanted to take care of my health.”

It’s instances like these where Reynolds said breaking down the stigma is just one of the hurdles when it comes to testing for HIV. He works with agencies to develop their health programs centered around HIV prevention and also helps patients find insurance, transportation, and clinics near where they live. That’s why he’s participated in the health district’s sexual education and testing health fair on Tuesday morning.

“I think there is that mentality of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but we are one of the 47 counties across the U.S. who have been noted by the Centers for Disease Control that account for more than 80% of the new infections,” Reynolds added. “We have programs here now to address that.”

Shannon Pickering, a community health nurse manager from the health district said at times symptoms may be undetected.

“In our programs, specifically with expressed testing we see about 10% of patients who are asymptomatic that actually do have an STI that we’re able to identify and treat it,” Pickering explained. “So we definitely started to see a decrease before COVID and then after COVID we started to see the rise again and we are attributing it to clients not being able to get out and test so we’re trying to get back out in the community.”

Currently, under the Affordable Care Act, HIV prevention care is free under most healthcare insurance plans including medication, visits and lab tests.

“It’s about educating people and I think there’s too many people that say that’s never going to happen to me or they’re going to say oh I’m not one of those people, they’re only classifying this as only certain people get it,” Reynolds remarked.

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