Northwell to offer free HIV testing using mobile van at CVS locations
Northwell Health outreach workers Asia Atide and Jorge Montes staff the health system's mobile van used for HIV testing. They are shown at CVS Pharmacy in West Hempstead, where a pilot program to expand HIV testing on Long Island will launch in December. Credit: Northwell Health
New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health on Thursday said it has launched a pilot program to increase access to HIV testing and promote prevention efforts in Long Island and Queens communities where the virus is highly prevalent.
Clinicians and outreach workers from Northwell’s Center for AIDS Research and Treatment (CART) at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset are collaborating with CVS Health to provide free, onsite HIV testing via Northwell’s mobile health van parked at select CVS Pharmacy locations throughout the area.
The effort will launch at the CVS Pharmacy in West Hempstead, located at 814 W. Hempstead Ave., and is slated to start the third week of December. The mobile health van will visit other CVS Pharmacy locations during the first quarter of 2019.
As part of prevention efforts, CART staff will provide educational training to CVS staff and pharmacists about various aspects of HIV testing and screening.
In addition to this pilot program, CVS Health has donated 500 HIV in-home test kits, which allow people to perform an oral swab privately. Northwell plans to distribute the home testing kits at venues such as nightclubs to individuals who may be at risk for the virus and are reluctant to walk into a health van to be tested.
This initiative is being announced ahead of the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, with the goal of providing health resources and education for people living in high-risk communities.
There were 129,000 people living with HIV in New York State as of 2015, according to AIDSVu, an organization that tracks HIV and AIDS stats nationwide.
For more information about the schedule and location for Northwell’s mobile health van, call CART at 516-713-8060.
Northwell Health, with about 68,000 employees, is the largest private employer in New York.
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