Do you know your HIV  and hepatitis status? If you’ve ever been sexually active, tried intravenous drugs or have other risk factors for exposure, you may want to consider getting screened for human immunodeficiency virus  (HIV) and Hepatitis C.

Currently, the Welty Health Center provides blood testing for students under a state grant; however, a new and less invasive test is being introduced. Starting on Wednesday, Oct. 6, saliva swab testing for HIV and Hepatitis C will be available to students every first Wednesday of the month. The health center will be partnering with Blue Mountain Heart to Heart, a nonprofit organization that provides support to persons living with HIV/AIDS, to provide these free HIV and hepatitis screening tests. These screenings will be available from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on a first-come first-serve basis; results are confidential.

Because the new saliva swab test is faster than the blood test, results can now be provided on the same day of visit; previous tests took a couple of weeks. If the test returns positive for HIV or hepatitis, the student will be provided with counseling support and resources for treatment.

Junior Sofia Infante, president of the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC), hopes the new method will encourage more students to get tested.

“This is the first year we’ve done this, so I don’t know what the outcome will be, but Whitman students are pretty open,” she said.  “[This is] less invasive, and takes only ten minutes.”

The service gives students the opportunity to ask questions to a provider that works primarily with patients with HIV and hepatitis. Infante hopes that by introducing this new way of screening for HIV and hepatitis at Whitman, it will become the norm on campus to be tested and to be aware of the risks of these diseases.

Some Whitman students, however, have concerns that the new testing will not influence the number of students who come to get tested.

First-year Zoë Erb said that because the new screening will only occur once a month, it may prove inconvenient for students.

“If the time is inconvenient, they might not make the time,” she said.

Erb feels that screening should occur at least once a week.

“If you think you’ve contracted one of these diseases, a month is way too long to get tested.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half of all new HIV infections occur among people under the age of 25. A similar study shows that one in 500 college students is HIV-positive.

Claudia Ness, director of the Welty Health Center, has concerns about the prevalence of HIV.

“We are certainly not without the concern of HIV, in this day and age,” she said.

Erb feels the same.

“I think it’s of the utmost importance to get tested,” she said. “While everyone should take universal precautions when dealing with blood or bodily fluids, you could protect others and prevent the spread of other diseases.”