House of Lords to Investigate HIV

posted: 21/12/2010

The House of Lords today set up a new Committee on HIV and AIDS, chaired by Lord Fowler. Lord Fowler was the Secretary of State for Social Services with responsibility for public health, at the start of the HIV epidemic. He was a key figure in the first national public HIV awareness campaign.

Investigating and reviewing HIV in the UK

The new House of Lords Committee will look in detail at HIV in the UK. They will ‘call for evidence’ in the New Year, inviting written evidence from everyone. They will then hold public evidence sessions, before producing a report next summer.

Prevention, Testing, Treatment, Discrimination

The committee is interested especially in reviewing prevention, testing, treatment and discrimination.

After the creation of the Committee Lord Fowler, said
 

"The Committee's report will appear almost exactly a quarter of a century since the 'Don't Die of Ignorance' campaign in 1986. This is a good time to review the success of prevention and treatment policies. In the last 25 years, various efforts have been made to check the spread of the infection. Nevertheless today the number of people living with HIV is nearing 100,000. The committee will examine whether public education has been effective and how it might be improved; and also the importance of early diagnosis. Currently about 27 per cent of those with HIV do not know that they are infected. The committee will examine what improvements can be made in testing and consider evidence of discrimination. A call for evidence will be issued in the New Year."

The Committee will have a webpage within the House of Lords Committee section of the Parliamentary website. The HIV Select Committee webpage is here

HIV Committee membership:

• Lord Fowler (Chairman)
• Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
• Lord Gardiner of Kimble
• Baroness Masham of Ilton
• Baroness Gould of Potternewton
• Lord May of Oxford
• Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill
• Lord Rea
• Baroness Hussein-Ece
• Baroness Ritchie of Brompton
• Lord McColl of Dulwich
• Baroness Tonge
   

Psychologists and Confidentiality

posted: 08/03/2010

A 20 page booklet of guidance from the British Psychological Society advises psychologists working in the NHS how to deal with HIV confidentiality where people may be exposing their partners to HIV. The guidance – ‘Criminalisation of HIV Transmission – guidelines regarding confidentiality and exposure’ has best practice guidelines, sections on dealing with police enquires and on disclosing information to partners, and what the various codes of ethics and types of professional guidance say.

These guidelines on HIV confidentiality and disclosure were developed to help clinical psychologists where HIV-positive clients have not disclosed their status to their sexual partners and there is a significant risk for HIV transmission. They have also been developed to assist clinical psychologists when clients believe they have contracted HIV under these circumstances.

This 2009 booklet costs £4.70 to people who are not members of the British Psychological Association.
 

How-To Guide for African HIV Prevention

posted: 10/11/2009

Sigma Research have just published the 'How-To' guide for HIV prevention among Africans living in the UK, called the "African HIV prevention Handbook: putting The Knowledge, The Will and The Power into practice."

This follows the prevention action plan produced in 2007-08 with the National African HIV Prevention Programme (NAHIP). That described the state of the HIV epidemic among African people living in England and set out the purpose, targets and aims for planning HIV prevention for Africans in this country. The chief goal is to minimise the number of sexual HIV acquisitions and transmissions involving African people living in England.

Sigma worked closely with the NAHIP to produce this ‘How-To’ handbook. It clearly describes the broad range of possible HIV prevention interventions, and clarifies the concepts and the language used to describe various interventions. It describes prevention interventions, their limitations and ways to get the best out of them.
 

Working well together has led to this handbook with clear and purposeful descriptions of existing ongoing and future HIV prevention interventions for African people in England. Sigma tell us they are proud of the partnership behind this and hope that it will support everyone concerned with reducing HIV transmissions.
 

The 'How-To' African HIV Prevention Handbook can be downloaded from Sigma Research here (or order free printed copies)

The African HIV Prevention Action Plan