For over 20 years, NCAP has been the community-based organization that has led the response to HIV and AIDS in Northern Colorado. The agency has evolved according to the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS, along with adapting to public policy and attitudes towards the disease.

NCAP is the only AIDS service organization in 16,000 square miles that provides comprehensive medical case management and prevention education/outreach services, including confidential HIV testing. We have developed an extensive network of collaborative and cooperative service providers throughout our vast geographic rural/frontier service area to ensure HIV/AIDS care and prevention remain in our local communities.

HIV is communicable (passable to others), but only through blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. While any type of contact with these bodily fluids has some degree of transmission risk, the Mayo Clinic reports the greatest risk factors as being:

• Having unprotected sex with more than one partner (not using a condom every time)
• Having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive partner
• Having another sexually transmitted infection (STI)
• Sharing needles when injecting intravenous drugs
• Having received a blood transfusion before 1985⁹ (HIV-testing of donated blood products began that year, but was not previously required¹⁰)

 

Even though HIV/AIDS infection is disproportionally represented in ethnic minorities in the United States and men who have sex with men (MSM), HIV does not discriminate based on race, age, gender, class, religion, ability, or sexual orientation – engaging in the aforementioned behaviors invariably increases the risk of becoming infected with HIV.