The Health Protection Agency has released its annual report into HIV in the UK. The HPA’s work is the best way for us to take the temperature of HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment in this country, and there conclusion is the same as our own: Dr Valerie Delpech of the HPA, a Saving Lives adviser herself, says that, “We want to see increased access to HIV testing routinely offered in clinical settings such as new registrants at GPs and hospital general admissions, in areas of the country where rates of HIV infection are high. We are also urging sexual health clinics to ensure that HIV testing is offered as part of a universal sexual health screen at every new attendance.”
Universal testing would be the best possible way for us to diagnose the undiagnosed and better control the spread of HIV. In its absence, Saving Lives continues to attempt to raise awareness of the importance of volunteering and asking for an HIV test. You can read the full HPA press release here, and we’ll be talking more about their findings as the week progresses and we approach World AIDS Day on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Guardian’s Sarah Boseley has reported on the HPA’s findings in the paper.
