By Megan DePutter, Positive Prevention Coordinator

Now that we are into February, our local HIV testing campaign has officially come to a close. However, I'm happy to say that until otherwise specified, anonymous, rapid HIV testing will continue at the AIDS Committee of Guelph weekly on Wednesdays from 1:30 - 3:30pm.

Last week I attended the Gay Men's Sexual Health Summit in Toronto, where I participated in sessions both on HIV testing and social media. There was some fantastic overlap of these goals and tools. I love seeing innovative solutions to solve complex problems, particularly when it comes to sexual health.

For example, I was really impressed to see dramatic results in the testing campaign run by the Regional HIV & AIDS Connection in London (formerly AIDS Committee of London). In fact, rates testing done in the Options clinic were increased by 100% when compared to one year ago. Amazing! You can view the campaign site here.

Other neat stuff I discovered includes a really neat little iphone app by Toronto Public Health called M2Men, providing easy access to sexual health resources across the city for gay men and men who have sex with men. You can download the app from itunes here.

In addition to this, Toronto Public Health also has a text messaging service called TOHealth, targeted to youth, to provide sexual health information in a private, confidential way. This system allows information to be downloaded and shared with friends easily and confidentially.

During the plenary session on testing at the summit, one of the speakers casually mentioned that he would like to see an iphone app that sets dates and reminders of when you should be tested for various STIs (syphils, HIV, etc) based on risk level. Since it can be sometimes challenging to figure out how often to be tested, for what, and where to go, it strikes me that this app might be an neat little development idea for the future.

Props to so many people and agencies doing such innovative work promoting HIV testing. I'm hoping that our work with the fall/winter campaign will have a lingering snowball effect in Guelph & Wellington County. And I'm extremely happy that weekly testing will continue and will look forward to resuming the campaign again in the fall.