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Sheffield to pilot HIV home-testing kit scheme
SHEFFIELD has been picked to pilot a new home-testing kit that aims to reduce the spread of undiagnosed HIV.
Almost a third of the people in the UK affected by the virus that can lead to AIDS have not yet been diagnosed, so are missing out on early treatment which can prolong their lives.
Tragically, as many as 500 people with a late HIV diagnosis die in the UK each year - but if more people were tested earlier many lives could be saved.
The Government has picked Sheffield as the only Northern city for a three-month community pilot scheme, which starts in June and will focus on offering tests to gay and bisexual men.
People will be able to get the home-testing kits - which involve taking a mouth swab and posting it off to a lab for testing - via websites and community outreach centres.
Steve Slack, director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health, said: "We were very keen to take part in this community testing pilot.
"We believe it will be an unrivalled way to engage with hard-to-reach communities to encourage more people to come forward for testing.
"The great thing about this pilot is the ease. It's a completely confidential test that requires the user to simply place a swab in the mouth for a few minutes and then place it in secure packaging for sending to the lab.
"Test results are then confidentially either called or texted to the individual."
Figures released earlier this year show the Royal Hallam-shire Hospital is caring for 634 adults with the infection and around 35 HIV positive children - twice as many people as five years ago.
Experts are also worried that, if Sheffield is reflective of the national trend, around 30 per cent more people are living with the disease unaware they have it.
A breakdown of figures shows about 60 per cent of Hallamshire Hospital patients were infected through heterosexual sex - most often in African countries with a high level of HIV.
But city doctors are also seeing an increase in new HIV infections acquired in the UK - most commonly among gay men but also among heterosexual men and women.
Dr Christine Bowman, consultant physician in genito-urinary medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said: "HIV testing is not something people should be afraid to come forward for. Thousands of people in the UK are tested each year, but we would like to test more.
"Naturally people are worried about the results because there is still no cure for HIV. However, diagnosed early enough, many people with HIV go on to live healthy, long lives."
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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