Since September 29, the population of Porto Alegre has an innovative option for HIV testing. The "The Time is Now" project has launched a website with the goal of expanding access for gay men, men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, and transgender women and transvestites to HIV testing, through a self-test that can be taken by oral fluid or a small drop of blood, without stigma or discrimination.

The website (www.ahoraeagora.org) is another channel for the key population of the municipality to order the HIV self-testing kit, and is also accessible by cell phone. By accessing the page, users may choose to receive the kit at home, by mail, free of charge. There is also the option of collecting the test kit in a digital locker, in a discrete, confidential way. The lockers are located at Shopping Total (Av. Cristóvão Colombo, 545, Bairro Floresta, on the first floor), which is open from 10am to 10pm. Both test possibilities, by oral fluid or blood sample, are fast and simple, as well as completely safe and confidential.

The "Time is Now" project website also provides information on HIV prevention and a risk of infection calculator, which provides a result based on the behaviors reported by the user. When accessing the website, the person must opt to receive an oral fluid test or a blood sample, and all the information for self-testing will be available, as well as the package insert for the chosen test and videos that explain the correct way to do the test and read the results.

After the test results

Users who test positive will be invited to undergo the confirmatory test at the Murialdo Health Center, with the support of trained health professionals. If the HIV positive/reagent result is confirmed, the person will be able to undergo all necessary tests (including viral load and rapid CD4 count) and immediately start antiretroviral treatment against HIV on the same day of diagnosis. The Murialdo Health Center will be open to the population of Porto Alegre from October 4th, always from 8am to 7pm.

The sooner a person is diagnosed as being HIV positive and starts the appropriate treatment, the damage caused by the virus to the immune system and the whole body is reduced. Today, people on proper treatment for HIV are able to reduce the amount of the virus in the body to undetectable levels, and do not transmit it to their sexual partners. Treatment of the HIV infection can be provided today with as little as one or two pills a day.

The "The Time is Now" Project

The initiative was launched in Curitiba in December 2014, aimed at expanding rapid and free anti-HIV testing among the most vulnerable to infection, i.e., young gay men and other MSM, and is now being expanded to Porto Alegre. The project aims to promote HIV testing, the early detection of the virus that causes AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STI), and to quickly initiate treatment. In addition to supporting people diagnosed and those living with HIV in relation to their treatment and adherence.

The project is a partnership between the Porto Alegre Municipal Health Secretariat, the Rio Grande do Sul State Health Secretariat, the Department of Chronic Conditions Diseases and Sexually Transmitted Infections (DCCI) of the Ministry of Health, the National School of Public Health (Ensp) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) the Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development in Health (Fiotec), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a U.S. government initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic).