New strategies required on HIV says AIDS Trust
The National AIDS Trust today launched Updating Our Strategies, a report from a recent expert seminar on HIV testing and prevention.
The seminar brought together experts in the field, including representatives from the Department of Health, the NHS, the Health Protection Agency and leading HIV organisations, to discuss how HIV testing and prevention strategies should be updated and refreshed within the National Strategy on Sexual Health and HIV.
The report includes key conclusions and recommendations from the National AIDS Trust on HIV testing and prevention, based on the discussions and presentations at the expert seminar.
It concludes that a new HIV testing strategy is urgently needed in England, given the fact that one in three people living with HIV in the UK remains undiagnosed.
The National AIDS Trust is also calling on the Department of Health to tackle the continuing high level of HIV stigma and discrimination within the NHS in order to encourage more people to access HIV testing.
The report also suggest HIV testing should be available in GP’s surgeries on the basis of request or in response to possible symptoms/ reporting of risk.
It also makes the case for ring-fenced funding available for HIV prevention needs to be revisited, as often money for HIV prevention is delivered to meet other immediate and short-term health needs.
