Throughout the week of April 10, Mary Walker Health Center held the “Get Yourself Tested” campaign, in an effort to spread awareness among Oswego State students about the effects of sexually transmitted diseases and to cut down on potentially damaging infections.
The health center has participated in the campaign for four years and has seen an increase year-to-year since they started.
The campaign offered free testing to the first 100 students who went to the health center and offered tests at a reduced cost of $10 per student afterwards.
The program was done in partnership between the health center, Planned Parenthood, Oswego County Opportunities and Lifestyles.
“Our numbers have grown each year that we’ve done it,” said Angela Brown, the director of the health center.
In their first year with the campaign, the health center saw 14 students. The following year, they saw 70 and in 2016 they saw 100 students for testing under the campaign. Their goal for 2017’s program was to cross the 100 student threshold.
“If we could break 100 [students] this year, that would be amazing,” Brown said.
The program has national reach, first being introduced by MTV and now partnered between the network and the Centers for Disease Control.
The “Get Yourself Tested” campaign is “a youthful, empowering social movement to encourage young people to get tested and treated, as needed, for sexually transmitted diseases,” according to the CDC webpage.
The program through Mary Walker focused on two diseases, gonorrhea and chlamydia, due to the rapidity with which tests for those diseases can be carried out, as well as their high infection rates observed by the health center.
The health center offers tests for many other STD’s including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis, but not under the “Get Yourself Tested” campaign. With those diseases, the health center looks to educate as well as treat the student, rather than just testing.
“If somebody’s asking for something like syphilis or some other testing, you want to have time to actually do education with that person,” Brown said.
The program was advertised to students via campuswide announcement sent on April 10, and was available until April 13 at 3 p.m.
“I believe that everyone should get tested and promote safe sex,” said Max Percent, an Oswego State freshman. “I think that the ‘Get Yourself Tested’ campaign is a great way to achieve that.”
