Boston University’s Student Health Services saw almost three times the amount of students it could accommodate for free and confidential HIV/AIDS testing over the past two days, forcing officials to turn away many students.
Students were turned away because of limited space and hour-long waits for the testing, organized to coincide with World AIDS Day today, the final day of the three-day initiative to encourage students to get tested.
Only one staff member from Sydney Borum Junior Health Center, a medical and counseling center in Boston, was available to conduct the tests, which where free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We clearly didn’t think that a few testing days would meet the ongoing needs of BU students, but we felt that it was a good start,” SHS Director Dr. David McBride said in an email.
The Community Service Center’s Project Hope, an HIV/AIDS awareness program working with Boston-area organizations to provide services to individuals affected by HIV, sponsored the free testing.
Project Hope Program Managers Mark Foelster and Allison Werner said the HIV testing project has been in the works for approximately two years and was a goal of Anni Baker, the founder of Project Hope. Baker, who now works at the Wellness Center on campus, did “pretty much all the work to get testing,” Foelster said.
“Absolutely, our main concern was whether or not testing appointments would be used,” Foelster said. “It gets our point across that HIV is an issue on our campus, and testing is a necessity on our campus. It is kind of ridiculous . . . to think we haven’t had testing until this point.”
Werner said the event’s goal was to “bring awareness to campus” and show SHS that changes were necessary for the BU community.
“We know that they have already filled up all the appointments, and they had to turn people away,” she said. “It proves that there is a need for testing on campus.”
McBride stressed the importance for college students to get regular HIV testing, particularly because “getting tested periodically” is a “reasonable approach” to staying safe.
“HIV has no symptoms potentially for 10 years after infection,” he said. “People may not realize that they are infected and could pass on the infection. In addition, the test may take several weeks to turn positive once one is infected.”
According to McBride, who became SHS director in September, university-sponsored HIV testing may be accessible to students in the near future, despite concerns about how to make student testing affordable.
“I believe that we will be offering testing routinely very soon,” he said.
Though federal and state funding allows some organizations to conduct tests for free, SHS is not eligible for such funding, McBride said, who believes HIV testing is “long overdue” for BU students.
If testing became routine, it most likely would not provide students with immediate results as rapidly as SHS did this week, McBride said.
“We would plan to offer the tests in the context of regular visits to SHS,” he said. “For example, during a well woman check or [Sexually Transmitted Infection] screening visit.”
Because of confidentiality purposes, many students declined to comment. The staff member who administered the tests also could not comment.
Staff reporter Clarissa Bottesini contributed reporting to this article.