Private MD News

MTV urges young people to get HIV test

Category: HIV

Somehow, Pedro is still finding ways to do good.

A movie about Pedro Zamora, a cast member on the third season of MTV's The Real World, recently premiered on the music cable channel and became the launching pad for a national campaign to get young people to take an STD test to know their status.

MTV, along with the Kaiser Family Foundation, have started a new initiative called GYT: Get Yourself Tested, which will be a month-long campaign to encourage people under the age of 25 to get a STD test.

The campaign falls in line with National STD Awareness Month and aims to educate people about the benefits of testing early and often for the disease. According to MTV, "half of all sexually active people under 25 have an STD and nearly 10 million 19 to 24-year-olds are infected with a new STD every year."

Zamora, who was reportedly the first HIV-positive man on reality television, became a national figure during the late 90s as his fight against the virus was documented on the show. A day after the final episode of that Real World season aired, Zamora died at the age of 22.