U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy encourages HIV testing.

 Saturday, June 27, marks National HIV Testing Day (NHTD). This year’s theme is “Take the Test. Take Control.” Launched in 1995, the annual observance day aims to raise awareness around the issue and encourage HIV testing.

To promote the testing day, AIDS.gov posted an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD. In the video, Murthy talks about his early commitment to HIV work. While a freshman in college, and during a time before effective HIV treatment, he and his sister founded an organization that recruited and trained college students to do AIDS education in the United States and India.

Today, an estimated 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV and about 50,000 Americans are newly infected each year. “I’m here to tell you,” Murthy said, “that more than 90 percent of new HIV infections could be prevented if more people were tested for HIV.”

AIDS.gov also released a series of “Tips for NHTD,” such as the two below:

To read the POZ article “Gay Black Men Tell Their Stories of HIV Care in ‘Positive Spin’”—including an interview with POZ blogger Guy Anthony—click here.

To find an HIV testing location, visit locator.aids.gov.

And for the latest data on HIV diagnosis and testing in the United States, read POZ’s “Just Five States Have HIV Diagnosis Rates Over 90 Percent.”