1 in 6 Gay Men Recently Infected

posted: 26/07/2010

One in six gay men having a HIV positive test in the UK became HIV positive within the past six months. This is the first result from a new system tracking trends in recent HIV infections in the UK.
 

The Health Protection Agency devised a formula (an algorithm) and method for tracking recent HIV infections. Knowing how many people were recently infected is helpful for working out what is actually happening in the UK HIV epidemic.

The number of recent infections matters because people who are recently infected are far more infectious than at any other time.
 

Tracking recent infections
The new formula and tracking method, called either the Recent Infection Testing Algorithm (RITA) or Serological Testing Algorithm for Recent HIV Seroconversion (STARHS), measures the amounts of certain antibody markers. These amounts change depending on how long ago the HIV infection took place. Amounts below a certain level mean the infection was recent (approximately within the last six months).
 

The RITA / STARHS method is not exact enough to tell an individual when they became HIV positive, because we all vary in how our immune system responds to HIV, but the method is good enough to give rough timings, which is all we need to track what is happening with the epidemic.
The work on this tracking system began in 2008, when the Health Protection Agency rolled-out STARHS as part of the routine public health monitoring of all newly diagnosed HIV infections in the country.
 

Results
The data presented the International AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna that has just ended, came from samples of 2099 people, who broadly represent, demographically and geographically, people newly diagnosed in the UK. The samples were collected between February 2009 and May 2010.
 

Gay and bi men results

Amongst gay and bisexual men, 16.1% of diagnoses were judged to be recent – within the past six months – one in six. There wasn’t any difference between gay and bi men of different ages.
 

Heterosexual results

Among heterosexuals, 6.2% men and 6.8% women were recently infected. This is just one in sixteen heterosexuals being infected within six months of their positive test.
 

There appears to be a trend for recent infections to be more commonly identified in younger heterosexual women (probably due to antenatal testing), but the age variations were not statistically significant. Curiously, in women aged 50 or over, there was a relatively high proportion of recent infections, but this is based on a small number of cases and could be due to chance. But it fits with another recent report from the HPA at the Vienna International AIDS Conference - many long-term heterosexual relationships break up when people are in their 50s, and women, no longer needing contraception, may neglect to consider the need for safer sex - condoms - to protect against STIs such as HIV.

Recently infected heterosexuals were largely people born in the UK. Heterosexual people born in Africa tend to have infection diagnosed later, the majority becoming HIV positive before migration to the UK.
 

Source

Reference: Lattimore S et al. Surveillance of recently acquired HIV infections among newly diagnosed individuals in the UK. Eighteenth International AIDS Conference, Vienna, abstract FRAX01001, 2010.
 

Hepatitis and HIV Compensation

posted: 19/04/2010

An award-winning composer who contracted HIV and hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood on the NHS around twenty years ago has made more progress in the legal battle for compensation.
 

Andrew March, 36, applied for a Court order to overrule the government’s decision not to award compensation similar to the compensation given to people infected by blood products in the Republic of Ireland.
 

An independent inquiry last year called for an overhaul of payouts to those who got HIV and / or hepatitis in the 1970s and 1980s through transfusions with unscreened and untreated contaminated blood. Ministers refused.
 

But a High Court judge has now ruled that the Government’s approach “has been, and remains, infected by error.”
 

Inquiry recommended compensation like in Ireland
The 2009 inquiry by Lord Archer of Sandwell found that 4,670 haemophiliacs who received blood transfusions in the 1970s and 1980s were infected with hepatitis C, of whom 1,243 were also infected with HIV.
 

By May last year, almost 2,000 people had died as a result, and £142 million has been paid in compensation to victims.
 

But the inquiry recommended that British victims be compensated on the same level as in Ireland, where those who contracted hepatitis C from contaminated blood were paid on average £750,000, and people infected with HIV received up to £101,000.
 

Dodgy excuse to say no
The Government refused to pay patients a similar level of compensation as it argued that the Irish blood transfusion service was found to be at fault, which was not the case in the Britain. This interpretation is disputed both in Ireland and the UK.
 

Although the government announced increased compensation for those who got HIV, it only offered to review the hepatitis payments in another five years. It refused to assess payments in the same way as Ireland.

Judge warns against 'false optimism'

Mr Justice Holman, sitting in the High Court, said that this argument was flawed, but that it was not his role to rule on the amount that should be paid, adding that campaigners should not now have “false optimism”. “I have given no steer or indication whatsoever as to what the Government may decide upon reconsideration, and it would be a grave abuse of my role if I were to do so,” he said. “The campaign may now return to the political arena, but no one should leave this courtroom with a false optimism.”
 

The Department of Health now says it would "now consider the position".
 

Mr March said: “Having the judgement go in our favour gives us no pleasure at all. The judge’s decision proves the flawed basis on which the Government made it decision not to implement the recommended compensation scheme. The judgment now compels the Government to retake the decision lawfully and based on accurate information.”

Source

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