So, have you been tested for HIV yet? If this were a student survey question, I’m guessing the majority of responses would be no. And it’s not so difficult to imagine why.

AIDS is a nasty, incurable epidemic that threatens to wipe out the human race. And if that sounds too extreme, take into account that we all, at one point in our lives, will be touched in one sense or another by the disease.

Nearly 30 million people have been infected with HIV since the epidemic began 20 years ago. The Centers for Disease Control assert that between 650,000 and 900,000 people currently are living with HIV in the United States. A gray area of 250,000 people? This means testing is eluded by leaps and bounds.

HIV screenings shouldn’t be something people want to do — it shouldn’t be that much of an option. Steering clear of AIDS is in our own hands, and prevention is our individual responsibility. Iowa State is one of 13 testing sites in Iowa — free testing, mind you, which actually can be perceived as a luxury because some colleges and universities can’t take advantage of federal funds. Case in point: I read today that because of government budget cuts, Pennsylvania State’s health clinics have been forced to charge students $25 for AIDS testing.

Penn State students likely have cheaper options, but the purpose of the price tag sends a misleading message. The government probably stopped funding the tests because it viewed the expenditure as a waste of money.

The folks over at Student Health told me that the CDC tracks AIDS “hot spots” in the United States, and Pennsylvania evidently isn’t one of them.

The refusal of subsidy hands Penn State students too many excuses to dodge testing. Now, not only will they think it might be a waste of money, students will assume it’s a waste of time because they supposedly don’t need it. I wonder how many infected people think they don’t need it.

Here’s a chilling statistic: One in 450,000 to one in 660,000 donations per year are infectious with HIV but are not detected by antibody screening tests. So despite high-tech screening practices, you never can be sure that you’re one up on the deadly virus.

AIDS treatment is developing, and it seems that scientists constantly are unveiling breakthroughs. The result is that, like other diseases such as cancer, people who catch it early have a better shot at survival. Chalk up another pro for mandatory testing.

There’s no legitimate reason to dodge the screenings. Free testing sites are at our fingertips, and the actual tests are both harmless and painless.

Don’t wait until you think you’ve been exposed to the virus because you never know — you already may have been.

And don’t rely on your partner’s tests because no one’s test result should be used to determine another’s HIV status.

Nothing will ease the fear induced by AIDS screening.

If it helps, take along a friend. Or better yet — take your partner. In the meantime, I’ll work on practicing what I preach.

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Staci Hupp is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Grimes. She is the editor in chief of the Daily.