We have a habit of thinking of HIV as a disease that is declining. Public knowledge of the condition had been very good thanks to a number of high-profile campaigns. But now it seems that Britain is slipping dangerously close to getting far worse. According to recent data, one in 20 gay or bisexual men in the UK has HIV, with that number rising to one in 12 in London.
This is a very worrying statistic, and there’s more where it came from. New infections remained at around 2,300 per year from 2001 and 2010. What’s troubling about that is that we have made huge advances in methods of testing, preventing and treating the disease in that time. Despite these impressive advances in technology, the number of cases is marginally growing ever year.
The number of new cases is being blamed on ‘risky sexual practices’ by health experts. It’s thought that further testing and more education on how to practice safer sex will be needed to see those numbers begin to fall.
Despite a 20 percent reduction in the time it takes to diagnose the condition, around 38 percent of infections in 2010 were diagnosed after the time patients should have started the treatment programme.
This is a huge concern, not only because it indicates that people are continuing to practice unsafe sex but also because the level of testing appears to be insufficient. It has been recommended that the NHS and the government start pushing forward new sexual health campaigns aimed at educating people to the risks.
Of course this will cost money and at a time when departments are constantly being forced to make cut-backs, campaigners face an uphill struggle to convince those in charge that spending money on HIV education programmes is the right thing to do.
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