December 1st is World AIDS Day, a day dedicated to awareness of HIV/AIDS, the virus that over 33 million people in the world currently live with, and has killed over 25 million people since 1981*. But simply being aware of the disease isn’t enough… the most valuable piece of information you can have about HIV/AIDS is your own status. As someone who gets tested every 6 months whether I’m sexually active or not, I find the peace of mind that HIV/AIDS testing provides is absolutely priceless.

Lucky for those of us in the Philadelphia area, there are a number of locations where you can get free & confidential HIV/AIDS testing, including the ActionAIDS organization, which provides walk-in service & 20 minute rapid saliva testing… no waiting up to two weeks for results!

For a comprehensive list of locations that provide free & confidential HIV/AIDS testing in the Philadelphia metro area, please see this site provided by UPenn’s Office of Health Education. (Thanks to Denice Frohman for the link!)

* – statistics from http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm