Philly Launching HIV Testing Awareness Campaign

PHILADELPHIA — Health officials in Philadelphia are launching the second phase of their campaign to promote HIV testing.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is now in the second phase of the Philly Keep On Loving sexual health marketing campaign called: Test, Love, Repeat.

Announcements of the campaign will appear across the city on billboards, buses, bus shelters, newsstands, and in new locations where you don’t normally see advertising, like barber shops, hair and nail salons, and laundromats.

Test, Love, Repeat will also be promoted across various social media channels. The campaign will also appear in Spanish (Chequearte, Amar, y Repitir) across all venues and social media channels. Test, Love, Repeat encourages all Philadelphians to get tested for HIV and to make an on-going plan for repeat testing.

"With today’s treatment, people with HIV infection can expect to live long, productive lives." Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said. "But that can happen only if they are tested."

It is estimated that almost 10 percent of people living with HIV in Philadelphia, nearly 2,000 individuals, do not know they’re HIV positive. Nearly 52 percent of young people between the ages of 13 and 24 who are living with HIV do not know their HIV diagnosis.

Testing is the only way to know your HIV status. There are many ways to test for HIV. People can ask for an HIV test as part of routine medical care, visit a community-based HIV testing agency for rapid, walk-in HIV test, or order an HIV Home Test Kit from the campaign website here.

"HIV testing empowers everyone to take important next steps in their sexual health," Dr. Kathleen Brady, Medical Director and Medical Epidemiologist for the Department’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, said. "HIV treatment and prevention has never been better: HIV negative persons who take daily PrEP reduce their risk of getting HIV by 99 percent and persons who are living with HIV who take daily HIV medicine and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative sexual partners."

The campaign is scheduled to run through December 2019. Health Department officials have invested $275,000 on development and placement of these ads.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health works to promote the implementation of routine HIV testing in various emergency departments, in major adolescent health care systems, and other medical practices through the City. It also supports community-based organizations to provide free, confidential walk-in HIV testing in various locations across the City.