CareSouth offering gift cards, Uber coupons to encourage residents to get tested on National HIV Testing Day, Saturday June 27

CareSouth offering gift cards, Uber coupons to encourage residents to get tested on National HIV Testing Day, Saturday June 27

BATON ROUGE (June 23, 2020) – CareSouth Medical and Dental is offering $25 gift cards and $25 Uber Coupons to encourage residents to get tested as part of National HIV Testing Day on Saturday, June 27, 2020.

The Baton Rouge clinic will be offering free HIV testing at 3140 Florida Boulevard. The testing will take place from 9 a.m. to noon. The first 25 people to get tested will receive the gift card and Uber coupon.  No appointment needed.  You can just walk up.

“Testing is the only way to know your status so we want to encourage everyone to take control of their health to help make our community better,” said CareSouth CEO Matthew Valliere.

The testing will include a confidential finger prick blood test and pre-counseling and post counseling. Results are available immediately.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1.2 million people in the United States have HIV and 14 percent don’t know they have it. The CDC recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of their routine health care. People at higher risk should get tested more often.

Nationally, Louisiana has the fifth-highest rate of AIDS cases. African Americans, especially Black women, are most at risk, accounting for the majority of newly diagnosed HIV and AIDS cases.