Steven Spencer wasn’t the only 17-year-old to sneak out of home. But he was one of the few to sneak out for an HIV test.
Not yet ready to tell his parents he was gay, Steven would secretly visit the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre to check for HIV.
He recalls entering the centre, lying about his personal details, and grimly reflecting on last weekend’s debauchery before facing the point of a needle. And the cold, lingering phrase: “We will call you”.
“There were so many times I sat in the waiting room, waiting for the test and just left,” said Steven, now 23. “The whole process was so incredibly intimidating; it discouraged me from doing it.”
Fast forward to 2015 and Steven will be going along for a free, confidential HIV screening test, administered to gay and bisexual men at the Midsumma Festival parade.
Working from a medically equipped vehicle at Alexandra Gardens, trained gay men from Pronto – Victoria’s rapid HIV testing program – will administer finger prick tests and provide immediate results. The pop-up testing, offered at a gay festival in Australia for the first time, will take between 10 and 30 minutes.
Pronto, usually operating out of a centre in Fitzroy, was established in Victoria in August 2013 by the Burnet Institute, the Victorian AIDS Council and the Victorian Department of Health.
Australia was one of the last of the developed nations to introduce rapid HIV testing and the gay community has for decades complained that regular testing with a GP – which involves a blood test and a week-long wait for results – were costly, inconvenient and impersonal.
In recent months Pronto has set up pop-up testing sessions at various gay bars, prompting a more open dialogue betwen gay men over testing, with some men even posting on their Facebook page when they are undergoing a test.
Chief executive of Victorian AIDS Council, Simon Ruth, said it was the goal of Pronto to encourage gay men to get tested every three months. The average is currently once a year.
“The real problem is when people who don’t know they are HIV positive – that’s where cases occur. The more testing we do, the more we can prevent accidental HIV transmission.
“We are always looking for new ways to make testing more available. We’re taking this on the road and hopefully gay men in the festival will decide to have a test with us.”
Jason Asselin, research assistant at Burnet Institute, said having gay “peers” administer the tests enabled people to feel more comfortable.
“It’s also about ensuring that when patients or patrons go to Pronto, they won’t be seen by strangers, but by people who are essentially peers,” he said.
A recent Burnet Institute study showed 20 per cent of HIV positive people tested were not aware they had HIV.
Nearly 350 Victorians were diagnosed with HIV in 2014, while the number of HIV diagnoses has more than doubled in the past decade.
The TGA has not yet approved the rapid testing. The trial in Victoria ends in August.