Football, HIV and Saving Lives

posted: 16/03/2011

When Birmingham City play Arsenal in the Carling Cup Final this weekend, they are launching a HIV awareness campaign for soccer fans.
 

Birmingham City and England goalie Ben Foster with midfielders Alexander Hleb and Craig Gardner are supporting Football Saving Lives, a national health promotion project.
 

Get Tested, then Stay Negative or Get Treated
“Saving lives is, of course, a lot harder than saving goals,” says Ben Foster, “but I’m a proud to be an ambassador for this campaign, precisely because it makes things so simple: get tested, get treated.

It’s as easy as that. It is definitely in your best interest to get HIV tested if you get the opportunity: if you’re negative, then you can stay that way, and if you turn out positive there are now life saving treatments available ”.
 

22,000 people do not know they have HIV
Football Saving Lives is part of a Birmingham NHS HIV campaign. Dr Steve Taylor says “One in four of those who have HIV are unaware they’re infected. That means that they cannot access the life-saving treatment we can now offer, and in addition they may well be unknowingly infecting others. We need to tackle this problem and diagnose the 22,000 people in the UK who have HIV but are totally unaware.”
 

Football Saving Lives raises public HIV awareness and corrects the wrong ideas people may have about HIV and HIV testing. Being rhis reluctance to take HIV tests, or thinking you are not at risk, remain key reasons why so many are untested and often end up in hospital because of the damage HIV infection causes over time.
 

People still die of HIV even though excellent treatment gives people reasonable health and life propects as long as people are tested and diagnosed early.
Soccer fans may not give much thought to HIV so the players and campaigns hopes to make fans think and act.
 

HIV hasn’t gone away
“I grew up in Birmingham,” says Blues midfielder Gardner, “and I remember the HIV prevention campaigns at school. But I haven’t heard anybody talk about HIV for years – I thought it had just gone away. But to think that there are some 22,000 people out there who have no idea they are infected is a really scary statistic. I’m supporting this campaign because I believe that education and raising awareness are the best ways of helping young people look after their sexual health and start to reduce the spread of HIV.”
 

Testing and timely HIV treatment allows people to live a near normal life. Treatment also helps cut the spread of HIV because people on successful HIV treatment with undetectable viral loads are far less likely to pass on HIV.
 

Almost all pregant women get tested - why not soccer fans?

Ninety-five per cent of pregnant women already receive an HIV test as standard, and if the mother has HIV treatment of the mother and baby means babies now rarely get HIV.
 

“Football Saving Lives is about getting these really important public health messages regarding sexual health and HIV testing out to the public,” summarises Alexander Hleb, on loan to Birmingham City from Barcelona.
 

Football Saving Lives, includes player profiles

Source

Birmingham HIV Homes Plan

posted: 20/01/2010

Birmingham plans to build specialist HIV housing for people living with HIV. The Birmingham plans are for site in inner city Small Heath. It will provide 17 two-bed flats, six short-term beds and a larger family unit.
 

Council officials have agreed the princiiple and hope it will be up and running by next January. Like the Camelford project for a respite centre in North Cornwall, this will also use a capital grant from Department of Health AIDS Support Grant to fund the building of the new housing.

A report to Birmingham City Council’s adults and communities overview and scrutiny committee, said:
“The adults and communities directorate have obtained a capital grant from the Department of Health, which will be used to build the innovative respite care facility to support the future complex health needs of a diverse and vulnerable HIV community. This will enable continued independence and enhance the quality of life. As people are now living longer with HIV, subsequently, there is an increase in numbers affected by physical disability and later life issues. The HIV team will monitor complex health issues via practice support, advice worker meetings, and any increases in packages of care, delayed discharges and readmissions to hospital.”
 

The new centre will be run with the help of a registered social landlord and the reports said the location was considered to be the only site suitable.
 

Source
 

Midlands HIV Prosecution Stalls

posted: 04/01/2010

On Christmas Eve the case against a man accused of deliberately infecting a woman with HIV was adjourned for more evidence to be gathered. The man, who lives near Cannock in the West Midlands, was remanded on bail until the week beginning January 25 and will reappear at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
 

The 42 year old man, a former schoolteacher in Nigeria, is charged with unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm.
 

However prosecutor Sati Aujla admitted to the court there were difficulties involving the evidence against the defendant and a medical expert had been called in. She said they needed to know whether the strain of the virus that infected the woman was the one carried by the defendant. “A decision will then be made as to whether the Crown pursue with the matter,” Miss Aujla added.
 

Judge Michael Challinor told the defendant that it was essential the new evidence was obtained.
 

George House Trust comment

This appears to be another case showing why the police badly need detailed guidelines for investigating complaints about HIV transmission. Charging someone with deliberate HIV transmission (acting in a way intending that someone becomes infected) is unusual - almost every case in the UK has been for the lesser offence of reckless transmission (being careless). Proving there was HIV transmission between the man and the woman is hard enough – science alone cannot prove this – but proving he deliberately set out to infect her seems highly unlikely to succeed.
 

The HIV sector, including George House Trust, produced a report ‘Policing Transmission’ for the Association of Chief Police Officers on problems across the country in police investigations of HIV transmission complaints. Since then HIV organisations have worked to develop clear guidance for police investigators.

This case shows these investigation guidelines need to be adopted by police across the country. The case should never have got as far as Wolverhampton Crown Court without the police providing basic answers to questions of evidence and proof to the Crown Prosecutors.
 

Worse, the Crown Prosecution Service has again ignored its own prosecution practice guidelines and leapt to prosecute without checking the evidence is actually there to justify such a very grave charge. The official policy and guidelines is to satisfy themselves that they have such evidence and proof. They admitted in court that they haven't got this evidence yet.

The case in Manchester was thrown out by the judge in 2008 because the Crown Prosecution Service had failed to follow its own guidelines and could not produce the necessary evidence.

We hope the Wolverhampton judge follows the Manchester judge's example and dismisses the case for lack of evidence, when it comes to court again in late January.

What is even more unusual is that for such a serious charge the man is on bail - the Manchester man, for example, was held in prison for months.
 

Source