A doubling of new HIV infections in the UK in the past decade is leading experts to tell GPs to offer testing to all adult male patients in some areas.
Health Protection Agency data shows new UK-acquired cases rose from just under 2,000 in 2001 to nearly 3,800 in 2010.There are more than 30,000 men who have sex with men living with HIV in the UK and experts estimate nearly a third of these are currently undiagnosed and unaware that they are infected.
The impact of late diagnosis is clearly demonstrated when you look at deaths among people with HIV - three out of five of HIV-positive individuals that die are diagnosed too late to gain the most health benefits from their treatment, like increased life expectancy.
In this decade, with the wealth of information available, HIV should never be on the increase. Be you Gay, Straight, Bi, White, Black, Yellow, Young, Old, Pink or Blue, the simple message must be that it is up to you, no-one else. So be safe, be secure, be careful.
Considering that I live in a country with one of the world's highest HIV and Aids statistics, I didn't even know that it was world aids day on the 1st, until well into the day. I was shocked when I realised that I hadn't heard anything on the radio or seen anything on TV, barring the little red ribbon.
ReplyDeleteThat said, they are doing massive drives over here to 'know your status' and there are random lucky draws happening for those who get tested. There's been quite an outcry about it; some love the idea, others believe poeple should just get tested for the sake of knowing, not in the hope of winning a couple of Rands.
Either way, it's a VERY real disease, it's effects are frightening and people just generally should know better than to go unprotected in this day and age...
Sue X
I was so surprised by the stats... my generation was the one just after the "big bad old days", and I would have thought more people would have shared that learnt lesson. A lesson learned the hard way by friends present and those sadly now passed.
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