Saving Lives has been very happy to supply the testing services to this year’s National HIV Testing Week activity in Birmingham. Flying under the collective banned of Fast Track Cities Birmingham, a range of NHS and charitable organisations have joined forces this last week to undertake testing outreach across the city.
A mobile testing van has parked up in a range of locations across Birmingham, where trained staff have been able to offer any and all members of the public interested in-situ tests via Saving Lives’ TakeATestUK system.
Our purpose-built outreach kits are designed to be taken either by an outreach worker or as a self-sampling kit, and are sent back to our partner laboratory, UKHSA Birmingham, for analysis. Results are returned to the outreach worker and patient alike – meaning that where new diagnoses are found people can get acces to today’s life-saving treatment where otherwise they may not have done so.
Well-targeted community testing is an important part of fighting HIV and other BBVs – and of achieving the FTC+ goal of eliminating HIV by 2030. It’s been a privilege to facilitate some of that work this week – and we’re looking forward to more such collaborative projects in future!
