Urine-Based Sexually Transmitted Disease Screening

The GUAHAN Project offers urine-based Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) screening in a collaborative partnership with Guam Public Health.  Like the OraSure Counseling, Testing and Referral (CTR) program offered by the GUAHAN Project for HIV antibody screening, this service is provided free of charge to at-risk communities.  However, unlike the OraSure test, all minors need to have parental or legal guardian consent to have an urine-based STD test given to them.

This STD screening was first introduced as a comprehensive intervention in conjunction with the Guam Public Health, GUHAN Project and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in 2007.  It has proven to be a critical service for communities that may not fully understand that they are at high-risk for STD infection.  The OraSure HIV antibody test will not detect STDs and vice versa, so this service is an important tool to identify risk trends and further educate the community about STDs.

Trained counselors perform this urine-based test at the GUAHAN Project office and during field work where some communities at high-risk for STD infection have great difficulty accessing services or even knowing where to go for help with an STD.  During every urine-based outreach opportunity, STD educational materials are distributed to those who agree to take the urine-based test as well as those who believe they may be at-risk for infection.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta recognizes the benefits of this important multi-organizational collaboration.  The surveillance data and information can help shape future interventions, justify funding priorities, identify areas of critical need, allocate resources more effectively and maximize current efforts to address the increasing STD statistics on Guam and in the other U.S. Pacific island jurisdictions.  It also helps those who test positive for STDs into vital care services to reduce further infections, which, in turn, may save lives.

Top and bottom photos: GUAHAN Project 2008 Board President Terry Aguon in two of the many community education training workshops for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). 

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Director’s Notes:  The Normal Heart
“The human contribution is the essential ingredient.  It is only the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.”  These are the words of Ethel Perry Andrus.  Words that truly represent the work you are about to witness tonight.  The Normal Heart was just another job I auditioned for as a professional actor.  I played the role of Mickey Marcus.  But I did not realize the impact and the importance of this work as a theatre piece and a message piece.  We learn a great deal about each other based on our histories and actions.  This play is a history on the plague we know as AIDS and is one of most important examples of getting to know what we are up against as activists and people living in the age of this disease. 

The presentation of this play is not as unorthodox as you might think.  Plays go through processes of evolution known as staged readings.  The directors, producers, and playwrights need to see the play “on its feet” and more importantly the actors giving the characters a voice.  We as actors kindly and graciously give you this work as an expression of our dedication to educating the public about AIDS and the prejudice that surrounds it.  The work itself is presented in the simplest form possible – bare stage, uniformed costumes, and basic lighting.  It is now your job to use your imagination to create the scenarios and situations.  We hope to help you in the images you create. 

Now we ask you to contribute and to give of yourself for this cause we feel so strongly. 

Ricky Vergara, Director, The Normal Heart (Read More)