Member News
By Veronica Oakeshott - 4th December 2009
Family doctors need to start offering routine HIV tests, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on AIDS has said.
David Borrow MP called for more action from GPs on World Aids Day earlier this week.
New figures released by the Health Protection Agency show that at around 83,000 infections, there are more people in the UK living with the disease than ever before.
Around 22,000 of them do not know they are infected.
The Terrence Higgins Trust agreed the high levels of undiagnosed HIV were "completely unacceptable".
Borrow said: "Until they are diagnosed, they do not know to take extra care to protect themselves and their partners. They also cannot benefit from early treatment, which would enable them to live a long and productive life."
The new figures show over half of people diagnosed with HIV in the UK are being diagnosed late, seriously reducing their life expectancy.
"HIV testing needs to become much more easily accessible," Borrow said.
"An HIV test is a very simple procedure and there is no reason why GPs shouldn't be able to offer them."
National HIV testing guidelines say that GPs should be offering opt-out HIV tests to all new registrants in the 43 PCT areas with the highest HIV levels in the country. This would include most London PCTs, Brighton and various other high prevalence areas.
However, getting people tested is not just about changes in the health service but also in people's attitudes to the disease.
Research launched in parliament his week shows that one in five people living with HIV in the UK have been harassed, threatened or verbally assaulted in the last twelve months, because of their condition.
The APPG on AIDS believes stigma associated with the disease is putting people off testing. Alistair Hudson, who helped compile the research for the people living with HIV Stigma Index, said" "People feel battered by their experiences."
There is also a problem of stigma within the health service. 18 per cent of people surveyed by the Stigma Index team had been refused a health service, such as a doctor or dentist appointment, due to their HIV status.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd