Photo by hey-helen.

A year ago, the District started an ambitious and innovative program to better test residents for HIV/AIDS — it started offering screening inside the Penn Branch DMV facility at 3220 Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

The AP reports today that, over the course of the past year, some 5,000 people have been tested, and the organization that runs the testing has been given an additional grant to expand its work to offices were residents receive social services.

Currently, some 25 to 35 people get tested each day at the DMV, and, in exchange, they get $7 off of the cost of whatever services they came to get. If they test positive, they’re told privately and offered a ride to a nearby clinic for counseling and services. Some one percent of those that have been tested have come out positive.

The District’s infection rate stands at more than three percent, triple the amount of what is considered an epidemic. HIV/AIDS advocates have long argued that one of the main challenges that the District faces is those residents that don’t know they’re infected. World AIDS Day is observed on December 1, and the District will play host to some 25,000 delegates from 200 countries for the International AIDS Conference.