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Wheaton, IL — Newly-elected Wheaton Mayor Michael Gresk will lead a slate of local, county and state officials, as well as people from the faith and business communities, in a campaign to promote community-wide HIV testing by getting tested at a mobile testing clinic at Wheaton City Hall on Monday, June 25. The City Council has adopted a proclamation supporting Wheaton-based The Mosaic Initiative's efforts to promote community-wide HIV testing.

These events are designed to raise awareness of National HIV testing day, Wednesday, June 27. In February, 2006, Wheaton made a commitment to be a "City of One," and join in The One Campaign's effort to end HIV/AIDS and to make poverty history.

This international campaign seeks to educate people about the link between poverty and health. The event at City Hall will echo those global sentiments, and make the point that both charity and health begin at home. Since HIV is a communicable disease, it's important that all people know their status through testing for the virus, and that the community respond with compassion for all who are diagnosed at or at-risk for HIV. This approach has been affirmed by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in announcing new guidelines advising that all Americans ages 13 to 65 to take an HIV test.

According to Cathy Hetrick, director of The Mosaic Initiative, there are currently 11,000 estimated people in Illinois who have HIV and don't know it. "With numbers this high, and even higher numbers of people at-risk every day, we can no longer wait to implement new federal guidelines that all people get tested, so we are working with many organizations and groups in an effort to make short-order of getting everyone tested. It's important that we really contain the HIV virus, and that we do so in a loving way that does not shame the people with the virus. HIV/AIDS is a global public health issue, and the first logical step to containing any public health problem is to accurately diagnose it in community. Shame, blame and judgment interfere with our ability to do this, so it's important the all people be humble, accepting and loving to all who get tested, regardless of their diagnosis."

In addition to testing at City Hall for a small number of individuals, there will be a larger HIV testing clinics on June 27 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in the morning and People's Resource Center in the afternoon.

The Mosaic Initiative is partnering with the DuPage County Health Department, Open Door Clinic (based in Elgin and Aurora) and Home Access with the goal of providing access to all people in the community to HIV tests with compassion and respect. People can also contact the DuPage County Health Department to get tested or visit clinics in West Chicago or at College of DuPage. Any primary care physician can also administer an HIV test or people can buy a home-based test kit. For more information, visit www.mosaicinitiative.org.

For more information about these events, contact Brad Ogilvie at 630-709-7752 or Cathy Hetrick at 630-292-3650.

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