TRANSGENDER PAGE 8 DAY OF REMEMBRANCE WINDY CITY THE VOICE OF ’S GAY, , BI AND TRANS COMMUNITY SINCE 1985 Nov. 27, 2013 vol 29, no.9 www.WindyCityMediaGroup.comTIMES Removing stigma from the HIV test By Matt Simonette medical facility they visit, which is why Glick and her and orders it administered as part of the examination colleagues are committed to make sure they are tested routine. The test is sent to the lab and a result usually part one of People end up not being tested for HIV for many rea- there. Testing is widespread in other parts of the hospi- is back within 60-90 minutes. Should the examining wct’s gift sons. tal, too. physician not wish to disclose a positive result to the guide Fear of doctors, needles or the cost. Not knowing that “With our internal medicine and family medicine de- patient on their own, they can call on one of three pages 26-29 you are someone at risk for acquiring the infection. Or partments, we’ve really had a good rate of , es- patient “navigators” who will also help arrange the pa- a hesitancy to even consider the implications of a posi- pecially as we work closely with the medical residents, tient’s follow-up care. About 350 patients are currently tive result. and tell them, ‘If you admit a patient and you know active in the program. Since the early 2000s, Nancy Glick, an infectious dis- that an HIV screening is not part of their medical re- A long-term issue with testing technology has been eases physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital and HIV medi- cord, just offer them testing.’” that HIV usually could not be detected until weeks, or cal director at Access Community Health Network, has There is little doubt that widespread testing is still even months, after patients were infected. But a fourth focused much of her energy on making HIV testing a needed. Twenty-eight percent of the hospital’s patients generation test now allows physicians to diagnose routine part of every patient’s medical regimen, and re- who have AIDS come into care with a full AIDS diagno- someone in the window period when they are sero-con- moving its stigma. sis, Glick said. verting, Glick said. That’s the test now administered at “A lot of our efforts have been in the emergency de- “In 2001, 42 percent of those patients came in with Mt. Sinai. partment,” Glick said. “We just talk to patients [and an AIDS diagnosis,” she added. “We do know that we “It may be a week to ten days after they are infected say], ‘This is a really routine part of your medical care.’ are reaching people sooner, finding and diagnosing with HIV, at a time when they are most contagious. Just as people are expected to know their blood pres- them when their illness is not so far advanced. But, They may come in with a viral illness—fever, rash, sure or cholesterol, you should also be getting screened still, more than a quarter of that population have that lymph nodes swelling—and they can get tested at for HIV.” diagnosis when they come in.” that point. We can help them to prevent transmitting Many in Mt. Sinai’s patient population are under- Patients don’t usually receive counseling before the served, and the emergency department may be the only test. Instead a physician obtains the patient’s consent Turn to page 12

On a desk Abraham margo Lincoln once used, Gov. Pat manhattan: WITNESSING Quinn (second from the woman left) signed the behind the Religious Free- dom and Marriage aids ribbon Fairness Act into pagE 10 HISTORY law Nov. 20 at the UIC Forum, making marriage equality a reality throughout the state. Also shown on the right is state Sen. , who sponsored the measure in that leg- islative chamber. Secretary of State is at left, and Sen. Don Harmon is in b