By Glen Gilbert

When word of last week's Oregonian story on HIV testing and informed consent spread through Cascade AIDS Project, we worried it would set back our efforts to screen all Oregonians for HIV

. As people who work for the day when we eliminate new infections, we feel compelled to give this cloud a silver lining. While we wouldn't want anyone tested without his or her consent, we are happy that people are talking about HIV.

Every time we talk about HIV, we chip away at the biggest barrier to getting tested: stigma. And every HIV test brings us a bit closer to ending HIV and AIDS for good.

Glen Gilbert

Today, more Oregonians than ever before live with HIV -- more than 6,300 people, to be precise. Shockingly, more than one-fifth of those who carry the virus don't even know they're infected. That 21 percent are responsible for as many as 70 percent of new HIV infections. If you haven't been tested for HIV, you don't know your status. If you don't know your status, you could be one of those 21 percent.

So, why aren't people getting tested? Many people continue to think they don't need an HIV test. They figure they're not one of "those" people. In Oregon, about 40 percent of people diagnosed with HIV this year will have contracted the virus so long ago that they already have AIDS or will develop it within a year. If they'd been tested earlier, their chances of getting the virus under control would be much better.

Yet there's a light at the end of the tunnel. In 2011, the National Institutes of Health reported that people living with HIV who took medication as prescribed were 96 percent less likely to transmit the virus to their sexual partners. Imagine if all Oregonians who were HIV-positive knew their status and were in care. In one year, the number of new HIV infections in Oregon would plummet from about 250 to only 10.

As President Barack Obama said of HIV testing and treatment on

, "These actions are bringing us closer to an AIDS-free generation at home and abroad -- a goal that, while ambitious, is within sight."

The only way we can end AIDS is to get tested, and if we test positive for HIV, stay in medical care. This is why universal screening is imperative. The only way that's going to happen is if we talk about HIV -- and not just with our medical providers as laid out in Oregon's informed consent law, but with our partners, our families and our community.

Given the road map we have for ending HIV, there's no good reason not to get tested. CAP supports universal HIV screening in medical settings with informed consent. If you don't want to go to your doctor, come to

, where confidential or anonymous testing is inexpensive or free. It only takes 20 minutes to get results.

Do you have 20 minutes to help end HIV? CAP sincerely hopes your answer is "yes."

There is no "magic bullet" to ending this epidemic, yet together we can envision a reality in which HIV and AIDS are no longer part of our daily lives, but only part of our history.

Glen Gilbert is the executive director of the Cascade AIDS Project, located in Southwest Portland.