Tom Rucci

Local public health advocates are encouraging anyone who doesn’t know his or her HIV status to find out.

“The biggest key to prevention is to know your status,” said Jerry Evans, assistant executive director with Chattanooga CARES, a local nonprofit that provides resources to anyone affected by AIDS.

In recognition of today’s National HIV Testing Day, advocates with Chattanooga CARES and the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department are hosting a number of free and confidential testing sites today and Saturday.

For the past week, the groups have offered free testing at bars, alcohol and drug treatment centers and other high-risk areas in the community, said Tom Rucci, AIDS outreach coordinator with the local health department and co-chairman of the Southeast Tennessee Council for HIV/AIDS Care and Prevention, which serves Chattanooga and 10 surrounding counties.

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS. The virus attacks the immune system, destroying white blood cells that fight diseases. AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is the final stage of HIV infection.

About 1 million people in the United States are infected with HIV/AIDS, Mr. Rucci said. One-third of those people, about 300,000, don’t know they’re infected and are causing 60 percent to 80 percent of all new infections, he said.

“The earlier you know if you are positive, the earlier we are able to start treatment and the better health-wise you are going to be,” he said.

At the end of 2006, 13,521 persons were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in Tennessee, according to the state health department. In that same year, Tennessee had an estimated 1,002 newly diagnosed cases of HIV/AIDS.

Through 2006, the most recent data available, 1,280 cases of HIV/AIDS have been reported in Hamilton County, Mr. Rucci said. About 53 percent of those cases are among men who have sex with men, Mr. Rucci said.

Public health officials are seeing an increase in new infections among women of childbearing age and youths between the ages of 13 and 18, Mr. Rucci said. The infections are disproportionately affecting minority populations, he said.

Of the total HIV infections recorded in Hamilton County through 2006, whites made up 50 percent of the cases and blacks were 47 percent, Mr. Rucci said. But during 2006, blacks made up 66 percent of the new cases and whites were 29 percent, he said. Of the females newly diagnosed in 2006, 76 percent were black, he said.

Those statistics closely correlate with national trends, he said.

“This should not be seen as a gay, white man’s disease. It affects everyone,” Mr. Rucci said. “A lot of people think that it can’t happen to me. ... It doesn’t matter who you are, or what race you are, or how much money you have, or what degrees you have.”