Anonymous AIDS tests to be offered

A free and anonymous AIDS testing site will open October 14 in the Dental School to serve members of the University and surrounding West Philadelphia communities. "I welcome the opportunity to have this site on campus," Director of Student Health Services MarJeanne Collins said. "It's important for people to have expedient access to anonymous testing." Student Health will provide the medical and educational supplies for the clinic and the procedures will be carried out by the Women's Anonymous Test Site of Hahnemann University. The clinic's location, at 40th and Irving streets, will help shield the identity of the patients and will be inexpensive for the University. "The minimum cost will be incurred," Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta said. "The bulk of the cost is the testing and space. The Women's Anonymous Test Site has a grant for the testing at no cost to the client and the Dental School is providing the space." The Women's Anonymous Test Site, which has been a referral site for Student Health since 1990, will be working in the Dental School's clinical research unit on Thursdays by appointment. Student Health only offers confidential testing for the HIV virus which causes AIDS. When a patient receives confidential testing, Student Health keeps a record of the patient's name and residence. Anonymous testing, offered at clinics downtown but not currently at the University, is a method of testing where no record of the person's name is maintained. The Women's Anonymous Test Site's funding for the actual testing comes from the AIDS Activity Coordinating Office of the Philadelphia Department of Health, said Dolores Solivan, the test site's coordinator and counselor. "The University of Pennsylvania is providing the site, the parking space, the safer sex packet along with medical supplies," Solivan said. "We will be providing the blood tubes and taking them back to our office to be picked up by the lab." Evelyn Wiener, the University's HIV-AIDS task force services committee chairperson, said it is unclear exactly who will utilize the site. "We're trying to get some type of questionnaire, so that we can anticipate what the needs are and the satisfaction with the site," Wiener said. Interest was expressed in such a site as recently as February 1992, when AIDS Awareness Week's anonymous testing at the Christian Association drew more than 130 students and faculty for testing. "I think that there has been an increasing awareness in the University administration that this is an issue that needs attention," Wiener said. "I don't think that the anonymous test site in itself is a dramatic shift, but I do think that it is a part of the determination that AIDS is a problem that affects everyone." Solivan, whose Hahnemann clinic attracts 130 patients a month, agreed. "The virus does not discriminate, and does not care," she said.