Prince Harry live streamed getting tested for HIV on Facebook—see the resulting Facebook post above—in an attempt to bring awareness to the disease and show how easy it is to get tested.
Ten minutes before Prince Harry’s July 14 appointment, which was at the Burrell Street Sexual Health Centre in Southwark, London, the Royal Family’s Facebook page announced a live important message on HIV. Ten hours after the video went live, it garnered more than 1.4 million views.
“So whether you’re a man, woman, gay, straight, black or white—even ginger—why wouldn’t you come and have a test?” he says in the video. The BBC reports that there are more than 100,000 people living with HIV in the UK.
The finger-prick rapid test came back negative in less than four minutes. Robert Palmer, the health adviser and psychosexual counselor who administered the test, commented in the video on the significance of Prince Harry getting tested saying, “It means this is a test for everybody—it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s a good idea to have an HIV test.”
The prince was visibly nervous at the beginning of the stream, but this isn’t his first time advocating for HIV awareness. His late mother, Princess Diana, was a notable HIV/AIDS activist in the ’80s, and Prince Harry has followed in her footsteps. In 2004, he spent two months working with children affected by HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, South Africa. And when he was back in Lesotho in 2008, he spoke about the disease again.
Prince Harry will attend the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) in Durban, South Africa, next week.
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