Many health centers around the country have offered Friday, June 27, free HIV test for people who wanted to take them. Campaigns to announce people of these free tests were carried on in multiple locations. This comes as June 27 is considered by most states to be the National HIV Testing Day.

According to health officials, America has more that 250,000 persons that are infected with the virus, but are unaware of the fact. This accounts for about a fourth of the people infected nationwide. It is very important for a person to figure out whether it is infected or not both for protecting itself and for making sure that others don’t get infected too.

According to official figures, the majority of the persons infected with HIV are male homosexuals. It seems that during the last years, there have been more African-American infected persons than Caucasians.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advices all people aged between 13 and 64 to take the test at least once in their life. Pregnant women should take the test during the first weeks of their pregnancy as to reduce the chance of the disease getting spread among newborns. What is more, people that have unprotected sex with more partners should take the tests more frequently.

An easy way to find information on where centers where HIV testing could be performed are located is to enter National HIV and STD Testing Resource webpage and follow the steps suggested there. In the end you will be presented with a list of centers located near where you live.