SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio AIDS Foundation is taking their mission to the streets in its new van.
"Are you positive you're negative?" is the message scrawled across the bright red van. A pretty woman, along with a thought bubble, is also painted on the side: "¡Ay! I didn't know I could get it that way."
Hitting the streets in October, the van will serve as a mobile HIV testing site in at-risk areas throughout San Antonio.
"Now we can reach out into the deep east side, south side and the west side, where there's a lot of barriers to getting to health clinics or to getting testing," explained SAAF Director David Ewell.
Interestingly, the test does not require a blood draw and takes only about 20 minutes for results. Sarice Greenstein, who works for SAAF, explained the test is more like a mouth swab.
The SAAF is centrally located at 818 East Grayson Street. Not everyone is able to find a ride or maybe doesn't even think about it, Ewell said. He hopes the bright red van will change that.
"Out of five people that are infected with HIV, one of them does not know they're infected with HIV," Ewell said. "And we need to get people to know their status."
The van will hit the streets in October, starting out at shopping centers, pharmacies and even fitness centers.
The van costs more than $50,000 and was donated by the Healthcare Foundation out of California.
