The new treatment clinic, located in Clare County, provides treatment and other services to Arenac, Clare, Gladwin, Isabella, Osceola and Roscommon counties.

Peter Gulick, director of the Ingham County HIV/AIDS clinic, said the expansion was made possible by the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, a federal funding grant founded in the 1990s, which provides care to patients with HIV.

Both Ingham County and central Michigan have acquired the $250,000 grant. The Central Michigan District Health Department also received more than $75,000 of funding from the Michigan Health Initiative for treatment services.

“To receive HIV treatment you need to go to an infectious disease specialist,” Youngs said. “The location of the clinic alone is crucial.”

Gulick said the central Michigan area was greatly underserved before the expansion.

“The problem is that in Michigan alone, there are over 15,000 to 18,000 cases of HIV,” Gulick said. “In Michigan about a third of the cases are college-aged patients.”

In 2006, persons aged 13 to 24 accounted for 15 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases, and persons aged 25 to 34 accounted for 26 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The CDC believes there are more than 30,000 undiagnosed cases in the (United States) right now and college-aged people are a prime area for testing,” Gulick said.

Ingham County has the third highest prevalence of HIV in Michigan, Grand Rapids has the second highest and Detroit is number one, Gulick said.

“HIV testing month is June and we’re gonna put on a big push to test everybody in Ingham County,” he said.

Gulick is making efforts to promote random HIV testing of people, including a plan to work with MSU’s Olin Health Center to organize a testing program for students.

“There are over 1.5 million known cases in the U.S.,” Gulick said. “This past year had about 42,000 more cases in the U.S., and if we do this random testing, we’re gonna uncover a lot more.”

Jacob Distel, executive director of the Lansing Area AIDS Network, recommends anyone who is sexually active be tested for HIV in intervals of at least every six months.

“The highest incidence rate group is still men who have sex with men,” he said. “I think many other people think that they don’t need to be tested.”

Distel said regular testing is important because it can lead to early detection and treatment.

“If you are tested and unfortunately are diagnosed as positive, there are a lot of things that can be done to give you a quality of life,” Distel said.

“I have friends who have been living with the disease for 20 years and they’re working and raising families.”