When the 2:40 p.m. mark hit Wednesday afternoon, almost a
hundred students on campus realized they would not be able to
receive what they had stood in line for hours to get ““ an HIV
test.
Throughout the day, hundreds of students were turned away from
the mobile HIV and STD testing unit set up in Bruin Plaza, said
Edwin Bayrd, the director of the UCLA AIDS Institute who helped
organize the event.
Bayrd said he didn’t expect more than a dozen to two dozen
students to show up for the free testing set up for World AIDS
Day.
“I didn’t know what the level of interest among
students was, I had no way of knowing how willing they would be to
get tested in a semi-public place,” Bayrd said. Due to the
seemingly large demand for testing, Bayrd said the mobile testing
clinic will be available the first Wednesday of every month until
the demand is met.
The service was available for three hours Wednesday. Students
could take a rapid test, with results available in 20 minutes, or
an oral or blood-withdrawal test, which had to be processed in a
lab. After members of the campus community were tested, they
received a red wrist band ““ modeled after the Lance Armstrong
yellow bands that many students already sport.
Overall, about 200 people were tested throughout the day, Bayrd
said.
When test administrators announced that testing would no longer
be available after 2:40 p.m., about the 70 people in line ““
some of whom had been waiting in line for several hours ““
didn’t move.
Several were disappointed that they didn’t get the
opportunity to be tested.
“I waited for an hour and a half, and I had to go to work.
I feel like I wasted my whole day,” said second-year
undeclared student Brianna Meshke.
Bayrd said he was surprised and delighted that so many students
didn’t seem to mind passersby observing them standing in
line.
Though free HIV testing services are available through the
Arthur Ashe Health and Wellness Center for students with the
center’s health insurance plan, several students said they
chose to come out to the mobile center because it was more
accessible to them. For students who have waived the center’s
insurance, testing is available for a nominal fee.
“If they are going to have (testing), they need to make
people aware because there’s no point in having it if it
isn’t known. I’ve never seen it advertised,” said
third-year biochemistry student Genna Painter, who has not been
tested through either service.
But Michele Pearson, the director of ancillary services at Ashe,
said although more students seemed to come out to the mobile
clinic, Ashe would not administer the testing in a public place
where others could see who was being tested. Students can decide to
take a confidential or anonymous test in which their name would not
be used.
Some students are also concerned about the amount of time that
it takes for Ashe to get its results ““ approximately a
week.
“The whole waiting period sucked, but I didn’t think
it was terribly inefficient,” said third-year Italian studies
student John Pistotti. “It’s the scariest shit ever,
but everyone should be tested.”
With reports from Robert Faturechi and Shaudee Navid, Bruin
reporters.