HIV Testing Day In Atlanta ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Sunday is National HIV testing day. In Atlanta today, leaders from city government, the faith based community and outreach groups urged testing.
They say many don't get tested for a number of reasons.

Fear kept Kelvin Barlow from getting tested even though he knew something was wrong. Barlow, an African-American, is 26 and was diagnosed with HIV at 17. He says fear still keeps many in the black community from getting tested.

"We're so gung ho and strong with the faith based community," said Barlow. "In the bible, they teach us not to have sex, wait on sex, you know homosexuality is an abomination and so we kind of draw back based on fear."

It's an issue Rev. Marvin Moss of Cascade United Methodist Church says can no longer be ignored.

" and we look at testing and we look at treatment and we must understand that the faith community plays a large part in assisting individuals to move forward with their lives," said Moss.

Another reason is treatment. AIDS awareness groups say HIV and AIDS patients are living longer thanks to better medicine. However, the advancements has unintended consequences. They say some no longer look at HIV or AIDS as deadly.

The most recent data available shows, since 1981, more than 31 thousand Georgians have been diagnosed with AIDS. About half of those people have died. Georgia has the 8th highest rate of infection in the nation.

Local testing sites can be found online at www.hivtest.org © Copyright 2012, WABE