HIV tests are on the rise at NIU since Magic Johnson announced he is infected with the virus.

Rosemary Lane, University Health Service director, said 14 people were tested for HIV in November, which increased from the three who were tested last November.

Lane attributes the jump in tests to Johnson’s announcement. And even with the growing number of students being tested, there is no AIDS scare at NIU.

Of 600,000 units of blood tested by Heartland Blood Centers in Aurora, only 19 are HIV positive—none of which came from NIU students, said Ann McKanna, director of Heartland donor resources.

Michael Haines, director of NIU’s Health Enhancement Services, said it is a good thing more people are being tested and an overall change in attitude caused the increase.

“I think the general awareness of the public has increased and the fear of risks with confidentiality has decreased,” he said. “That probably has something to do with the increase (in testing).”

Lane said she checks for donors who have tested HIV positive at Heartland once a year as part of her report on sexually-transmitted diseases.

“They (Heartland) won’t tell us the names of the people who tested positive, but they do tell us the percentage of people who do,” she said. “I’ve been checking with them for the past five years and so far every year NIU has come back with a zero percentage rate.”

However, Lane said the figures sometimes can be misleading because some people who are infected with the HIV virus do not donate blood.

Lane said the frequency of the HIV virus varies by geographic region and NIU is in the low percentage area.

“Universities in the urban areas have a higher percentage of positive HIV blood samples,” she said. “We’re in the lower brackets.”

But, Lane said students should not hide behind these figures and think that NIU is exempt from the disease.

“The disease is out there and casual sex is not encouraged,” she said. “Just because we haven’t hit a rising curve of the disease in the past does not mean it will not hit this campus.”

Lane said the University Health Service offers an anonymous exam that tests for the HIV virus for a $20 fee.

Haines said the only NIU students required to be tested for HIV are those enrolled in ROTC.

Heartland’s results refute some students’ ideas that AIDS is spreading quickly through NIU, an idea Lane said probably came from a student.

“The whole thing seems so malicious,” she said. Lane added she thinks the student “has something against NIU” and wanted “just to disrupt things.”

Haines said he thinks it might have come from Johnson’s announcement.

“The Magic Johnson furor brought back the whole issue of HIV,” he said. “He created a national excitement and then rumors seem to have a life of their own.”