Health Department to offer free HIV testing Monday
Monday, June 27 is recognized as National HIV Testing Day, a day to emphasize and encourage HIV testing.
The Gulf County Health Department will be offering free HIV testing in observance.
Free testing will be provided in the mobile medical unit at the Gulf County Health Department from 10a.m. to 2 p .m. EDT, according to a release from the DOH.
The Health Department is located at 2475 Garrison Avenue in Port St. Joe.
The NHTD theme for 2022 is “HIV Testing is Self-care.”
The World Health Organization defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”
“HIV testing is an act of self-care, and knowledge of status is the gateway to engaging in prevention or treatment services that enable individuals, regardless of their status, to live a long and healthy life,” read a press release from HIV.gov, run by the U.S. Department of Health.
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.