NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Bayou Classic fans are being encouraged to take a free HIV test while in New Orleans for the annual football matchup between arch rivals Southern University and Grambling State.
The game between the two predominantly black colleges will be played Saturday at the Superdome. Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m. CST.
On game day, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., free HIV testing will be available outside the Superdome at the Louisiana STD/HIV Program Health Fair tent.
According to the Department of Health and Hospitals, more blacks are infected with HIV than any other racial or ethnic group. Testing will consist of a quick, painless swab of the mouth, and results will be available in just 20 minutes.
Blacks make up 32 percent of the state’s population yet represented 74 percent of the state’s new HIV cases last year, DHH said. In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegged Louisiana as the state with the nation’s fifth highest AIDS case rate, and among American cities, Baton Rouge ranked second and New Orleans ninth in AIDS case rates.
Testing at the Bayou Classic is being provided by DHH, OraSure Technologies, Inc., and the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Greater Than AIDS” effort. The screenings come one week before World AIDS Day, which is Dec. 1.
The first ever Bayou Classic, won by Grambling, 21-0, was played at Tulane Stadium in 1974.
 
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