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SARASOTA – CAN Community Health is encouraging HIV testing in honor of National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. 

“It is important for us that we make sure that we do know our status, because in knowing our status we can stop the spread of the disease,” said Prevention Team Lead, Rick Vitale. 

September 27th marks National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS awareness day, just this year, CAN Community Health tested over 6 thousand individuals.

“Looking at our numbers we see the highest rates of HIV transmission in men who have sex with men, or MSM, of the MSM population, 60 percent of those individuals who are HIV positive identify as black or African American, making the black community our highest risk population in gay men,” said HIV Program Manager, Megan Murphy.

CAN offers free STI panels, to ensure HIV testing is accessible for all. 

“Once you receive your status, if you’re negative, hey that’s great, you got a clear head, and we have PREP, and we can prevent this disease, but if a person tests positive for HIV, we have great clinical services here, we provide medication, we provide doctors, we provide dental, we provide an inclusive health care system, so that you can live a productive life,” said Vitale. 

Overall, CAN’s goal is to encourage testing, prevention and treatment and stop the HIV stigma.

“Putting a stigma on someone prevents them from getting proper and good healthcare and because of that they go in hiding, and that’s not good, it’s important to treat yourself with this virus, its important because you can live a very long long life, productive life, so its important,” said Vitale. 

CAN also offers mobile testing across the Suncoast. For more information on CAN and their various locations across the state, you can visit their website here.