HIV Tests at Casualty

posted: 27/07/2010

Every person who goes to London A&E departments could soon be tested for HIV under plans being considered by NHS London. In the first move of its kind, the HIV checks could become routine at emergency units and will be offered to any adult attending casualty. The move is being rolled out at Chelsea & Westminster NHS foundation trust following a hugely successful Department of Health funded study at the south-west London hospital.
 

2 people diagnosed every month at one A&E

It comes because of the numbers of people with HIV and the rise in HIV across London. The pilot HIV testing at Chelsea and Westminster’s A&E department found nearly half a dozen new people with HIV in only three months.
 

The Health Protection Agency recently recommended that the NHS should as a matter of routine do a HIV healthcare check everyone when they go to an A&E department in any areas with higher rates of HIV. Now a number of other health trusts are already seriously considering this.
 

North West Too?

In NW England, Manchester, Salford and Blackpool have rates of HIV high enough to justify routine HIV screening in A&E.
 

Better Health and prevention

HIV testing at A&E is one way to improve the health of people with undiagnosed HIV. New figures show that at least one in every four people with HIV do not know they have HIV. Late diagnosis worsens people’s health and shortens people’s lives. Undiagnosed HIV means people don't get the treatment they need for good health and people may be passing on HIV unwittingly to their sexual partners.
 

Under 18s

Dr Rachael Jones, from Chelsea and Westminster hospital, said she has treated nearly a dozen patients under 18 in the last three years in West London but this was just “the tip of the iceberg”.
The consultant blamed ministers for focusing on underage pregnancy instead of on safer sex and said HIV tests should be routine for everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. She said: “For a long time it was men having sex with men presenting with the virus. Now we're seeing teenagers coming through for the first time with HIV. It only takes one episode of unprotected sex for them to become infected.”
Dr Jones said that the “Don't die of ignorance” shock campaign of the Eighties failed to have a lasting impact and that many teenagers do not even know what HIV is.
 

Source 
 

1 in 7 London gay scene men are HIV+

posted: 22/07/2010

HIV is far more common on the gay scene in major cities than most men realise. A new anonymous survey in bars and clubs in London shows 1 in 7 men on the scene there have HIV. Many on the gay scene across the country don’t even know they have HIV.

A few years ago the same survey showed Manchester, London, and Brighton all with 1 in 10 men on the scene having HIV. If it is 1 in 7 in London now, Manchester is unlikely to be far behind.

Using a simple anonymous HIV saliva test of 1,251 men in gay bars, clubs and saunas, 15.2% were found to have HIV. This is much higher than the Health Protection Agency estimate for gay men in London in general. Men using the scene are more likely to have HIV than gay men who aren’t regularly out on the scene.

1 in 7 Bus

There’s now a campaign running in London using the iconic red London Routemaster bus, with ‘1 in 7’ as the destination on the front. It’s to be seen in adverts in London gay magazines, on Gaydar, and as posters in London bars, saunas, and sexual health clinics.
 

Alan Wardle, Head of Health Promotion at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “Men who have seen the campaign in focus groups have been genuinely shocked by the ‘1 in 7’ figure. Yet the reality is that, after Brighton, London has the highest HIV prevalence of any city in the UK.

"Many gay men wrongly believe that you can tell someone’s HIV status by what they look like, how they act, or who they’re friends with. But you can’t tell whether someone has HIV by looking at them, and with a quarter of gay men who have HIV currently undiagnosed, he may not even know himself.
 

"The assumption that HIV is visible is almost certainly affecting whether men use condoms or not. 47% of gay men surveyed reported having unprotected anal sex with at least one partner, and a quarter reported doing this with more than one casual partner. With this in mind, it’s vital this campaign reminds men that the best way to protect themselves and others is to use condoms.”
 

Source

Gay Men’s Sexual Health Survey 2009 in 36 gay venues. University College London / Health Protection Agency. Between December 2008 and February 2009, HIV prevalence of 15.2% was recorded among 1,251 men taking OraSure oral swab HIV tests in 36 London gay bars, clubs, and saunas.
 

HIV Activist Claims Trafalgar Sq Plinth

posted: 29/07/2009

A HIV activist mounted Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth this morning as part of Antony Gormley's One & Other exhibition.

Eric Page spent part of his hour on the plinth wearing a THIVK you're still negative? T-shirt to raise awareness of the work of Terrence Higgins Trust.

THIVK is a year long campaign developed by the CHAPS partnership and launched by THT to get men to consider if they have HIV without realising. The Health Protection Agency estimates up to 10,000 gay men in Britain have HIV without knowing.

THIVK, Test and Take Control  campaign

Page, from Brighton, who has worked for THT as a sexual health outreach worker for eight years, said: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I wanted to spend my hour on the plinth to highlight the issues of sexual health and gay men in particular as HIV is a risk for all people. I started my time on the plinth in a fabulous outfit, slowly changing my outfits until I end up, in homage to Gormley's previous work, naked. Leaving me, very literally exposed and vulnerable.

Sue Peters from Terrence Higgins Trust said: "I want to say a huge thank you to Eric for supporting us. It's now recommended that gay men test at least once a year, or after any unprotected sex. Yet around a third of gay men in England have never taken an HIV test, with the figure even higher in Scotland and Wales. It's fantastic that Eric is helping us to get the message out to men to take control and make testing for HIV a regular part of their lives in such a unique and visible way."

Watch the action live from the plinth every Friday at 7pm on Sky Arts 1/HD and online at oneandother.co.uk

The THIVK campaign and information website

Source and photo

£100 a Mile Marathon

posted: 29/04/2009

On a very sunny April morning, Nick Eaton and Jono Guildford ran the 26.2 mile London marathon in aid of George House Trust, and both completed it in just over 4 hours.

This was an especially good time because after training in Manchester cold and rain, they faced sunshine and hot conditions on London's streets. The weather provided a lovely day out for spectators, but it was not so kind on the runners!

Nick and Jono between them raised £2600 for George House Trust. Training for a marathon is a challenge, but raising over £100 a mile in sponsorship at the same time makes it a truly massive achievement.

We'd like to express our huge appreciation and say well done from the whole George House Trust team.

Time to add to the total

You can add your appreciation of the efforts of Nick and Jono by sponsoring them now at Nick's JustGiving page, and at Jono's JustGiving page.

Face of Lighthouse

posted: 18/12/2008

Michael Edwards, who was the "face" of the HIV centre, London Lighthouse, warmly welcoming people at reception, has died. Michael Edwards, aged 63, was for nearly 20 years the smiling, welcoming face of London Lighthouse, the north Kensington centre for people infected with or affected by HIV. Diagnosed with cancer, he was given a year to live, but developed pneumonia and died a few days later.

Born in what was then southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Michael had Scottish and German Jewish grandfathers and two African grandmothers. He was the youngest of nine children, and his siblings spoilt him rotten. After a brief career as a dancer in Salisbury (now Harare), he came to London when he was 19 to train as a nurse, but health problems ruled out this career and he turned to hairdressing.

Almost 20 years of support

Michael joined London Lighthouse in 1989. He worked on the residential unit, where people infected with the virus came for respite or palliative care, until he was moved to the main reception desk, a job that suited him well.

He was very often the first person a visitor to Lighthouse, perhaps newly diagnosed, met, and the warmth of his welcome was something they never forgot. He could, when needed, be a tremendous pillar of strength, and he helped many people come to terms with their diagnosis, which in those early days could be a sentence of death.

His cheerful, friendly, charismatic personality touched everyone who came into contact with him. He had a wicked sense of humour, and was the life and soul of many a party. Over the past 20 years, thousands of photographs were taken at Lighthouse, and it would be hard to find one that did not show Michael's grinning face.

As well as working at Lighthouse, he was a part-time barman at Ted's Place, a gay club in Fulham, west London.

Michael always did things in style, and the funeral was as stylish as the man. A glass hearse, pulled by two black horses with pink plumes, carried the coffin, and the party afterwards at Lighthouse went on into the night.

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