West Virginia
colleges offer students oral HIV tests

Earlier this month, West Virginia University became the latest higher education institution in the state to offer an oral-swab HIV antibody test to students. "What prompted it was a long-standing desire to have more HIV prevention, counseling, education, and testing," says WVU's director of Student Health Services Jan Palmer.

West Virginia's Fairmont State University and Glenville State College already offer oral HIV antibody testing though student health services, and Marshall University offers it through the Cabell-Huntington health department.

Glenville State spokeswoman Allison Minton says providing HIV antibody testing on the campus helps students. "I think it's important that if a student has a concern that they have a disease that they have access to the health care that can give them answers," she says.

Counseling is also offered as part of HIV antibody testing, including discussions about abstinence, alcohol's potential role in risky behavior, and the importance of condom use. "We want to help them change behaviors that continue to put people at risk," explains Yolanda Kirchartz, director of student health services at Fairmont State. "Too often college students feel a false sense of security because they are young and appear to be healthy. They think, It can't happen to me," adds Palmer.

In the first six months of 2005, 65 new HIV cases were reported in West Virginia, state health officials said, compared to the 139 cases for all of 2004 and 158 cases in 2003. (AP)