DeKalb residents can get free HIV testing and other health screenings on June 27, which is National HIV Testing Day.

The Decatur nonprofit STAND Inc. is offering the OraQuick Advance rapid oral testing, counseling and referral services from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 4319 Covington Highway, Suite 117-A, in Decatur in the Omni Tech building in the back parking lot.

It also will offer free HIV testing from 3 to 7 p.m. on June 27-29 at the Walgreen store at 2320 North Druid Hills Road N.E., at the northeast corner of North Druid Hills and Briarcliff (404-248-1793).

The OraQuick Advance rapid oral swab provides a result within 20 minutes.

STAND also will host a health and wellness event on June 27 and provide information on resources available to the community. The health fair will offer blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, body mass index, HIV and STD screenings.

There will be a number of other community service providers who will share information and community resources.

STAND’s Prevention Services Department is at 3423 Covington Drive, Suite D. For more information, visit http://standinc

.com or call 404-284-9878.

Free testing also will be available for anyone 17 or older at the DeKalb Addiction Clinic at 455 Winn Way in Decatur from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 27 at an event sponsored by the DeKalb Community Service Board and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Stone Mountain-Lithonia Chapter.

Participants will receive results within 20 minutes. If needed, personnel at the DeKalb Addiction Clinic can make references for follow-up services to the DeKalb Board of Health or another health care facility.

Testing at the clinic is coordinated by DeKalb CSB employee Margaret Renfroe, whose longstanding dedication to HIV work stems from a friendship.

“My best friend in the whole wide world died from AIDS and I made a commitment to her to do everything that I possibly could do to help stop the spread of this virus,” Renfroe said in a June 4 statement.

Last fiscal year, Renfroe tested 1,276 people over the course of 12 months, up 50 percent over the previous year. She tested more people than any other HIV Early Intervention Services worker in Georgia.

HIV EIS is a program of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Luevenia McCain Holloway, president of the Stone Mountain-Lithonia Chapter of 100 Black Women, said the chapter is committed to advocate on behalf of initiatives that support HIV/AIDS awareness and testing.

“Although a tremendous amount of progress has been made in the areas of HIV/AIDS research and treatment, this epidemic continues to grow at a rapid pace among minority populations,” Holloway said.

The DeKalb CSB is a nonprofit public provider of community-based behavioral health care, offering a full range of mental health services, substance abuse treatment and developmental disabilities programs. For more information, contact the DeKalb Addiction Clinic at 404-508-6430.

Since 1995, HIV Testing Day has been a national observance to promote testing.

According to the 2008 Georgia Data Summary: HIV/AIDS Surveillance, Georgia has the sixth highest number of AIDS cases in the United States and as many as 38,300 people in the state may be infected with HIV. 

In 2007, the metro Atlanta area had 64 percent of all AIDS cases in Georgia.

Despite representing only 14 percent of the U.S. population in 2009, African-Americans accounted for 44 percent of all new HIV infections that year.

African-Americans account for a higher proportion of HIV infections at all stages of disease – from new infections to deaths.