Actually, nearly 240,000 people in the United States managing HIV don't even know it — that's about one in most five Americans with the disease. And according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all new infections (about 56,000 cases each year in the United States) are handed down by people who do not know their HIV status.

The CDC recommends that every American get tested at least one time — and that people at higher risk (those who've sex with multiple partners, by having an HIV-positive sexual partner, or who inject drugs) get tested once every year.

Sure, you can get a routine HIV exam by going to your doctor or stopping by way of a local testing center (many of these sites even offer free counseling if the answers are positive). But lately, some nonprofits are becoming creative about rendering it easier for folks to get tested wherever they're — including while waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles and searching for clothes.

Here's a glance at some unexpected places to obtain an HIV test.

1. The DMV
If you reside in the Washington, D.C., area and you're due for a driver's license renewal, you can pass enough time — and benefit your quality of life — by finding a freeHIV test. The rapid oral swab exam (results are available in about 20 minutes) is conducted immediately at theDMV, in a personal office. As an added bonus, individuals who get tested also get a $7 discount on theirDMV bill.

2. A thrift shop
For every dollar spent at Out of the Closet, a sequence of thrift stores with 22 locations in California and Florida, about 96 cents would go to the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), based on the shop's general manager Jonathon Kreuyer. But beyond simply donating funds to HIV/AIDS, the chain can be helping promote awareness by offering freeHIV tests to shoppers, who receive results in 20 minutes and are offered free counseling.

3. Church
Due to the unfortunate stigma surroundingHIV/AIDS, church may be the last place you think of forHIV testing. But New York City's Metropolitan Community Church — which serves a predominantly gay and lesbian community — is trying to alter that.

4. A mobile van
Union Positiva, a Florida-based HIV/AIDS organization funded by the CDC, is bringing HIV tests out from the doctor's office and into moving vehicles. The fully-equipped vans allow people to have free, rapid, and confidential HIV exams at regular and non-traditional hours. Other mobile testing centers exist across the nation; to get one towards you, go to FreeHIVTest.net.

5. Your bathroom
You can even HIV test yourself in the comfort of your home. DIYHIV exams, such as the Home AccessHIV-1 Test System (which isFDA-approved and can be purchased online or at many drugstores), involve pricking your finger with a needle, placing a couple of drops of blood on the blotter pad, and then mailing it to a lab. If you have any kind of concerns relating to where and ways to use hiv home test, you can call us at our web site. You obtain results within seven days. It's not as quick as a rapid exam (and there's a cost; it's $44), but at home-tests have one major plus — far more privacy.