On July 14, Prince Harry headed to the clinic to take an HIV test — an it was live-streamed on Facebook.
He tested negative, by the way.
Prince Harry decided to live-stream this event to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS and to show others how simple the testing process is. The whole process, including taking the test and waiting for the results, took less than four minutes.
“It’s amazing how quick it is,” he said. “It’s better that everyone goes and gets tested. Why wouldn’t you? Whether you’re a man, woman, gay, straight, black, white, whatever, even ginger, why wouldn’t you come and have a test?”
This is not the first time Prince Harry has spoken out against AIDS. He is the co-founder of Sentebale — which works with grassroots organization in Lesotho to prevent children at risk from HIV/AIDS live healthy lives.
The World Health Organization estimates that 36.9 million people across the globe are currently infected with HIV/AIDS, a number that could be reduced with proper testing and knowledge of the disease. Of that 36.9 million, only 17 million have access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy.
Harry believes this generation needs to take leadership in the fight against HIV, or we’ll risk losing the gains of those who've come before. He has encouraged everyone to get tested (even those who don’t think they could be infected) to help reduce the negative stigma around the testing process.
Prince Harry will continue to raise awareness when he attends the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, July 18-22. He is scheduled to speak alongside Elton John and Sentebale's other co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, at the event.