More HIV Testing Urged

posted: 08/10/2010

The NHS health advice body NICE has produced its first HIV guidance, about HIV testing. The draft HIV testing guidance recommends that mainstream health services offer much more HIV testing to the two communities most affected by HIV in England, black African people and to men who have sex with men. The guidelines also call for more testing to be offered in places such as bars and saunas, using rapid point-of-care tests.
 

NICE HIV testing: open for comments
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) tells the NHS which are the best and most cost-effective treatments and public health interventions. NHS bodies are legally required to fund the medicines and treatments recommended by NICE.
 

Making HIV testing guidelines work
Other organisations have produced HIV testing guidelines before, notably the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH). But these were not backed by the UK National Screening Committee, nor by NICE, and many parts of the NHS simply ignored them.

The most recent BHIVA and BASHH testing guidelines recommended that HIV testing should be offered in a wide range of healthcare settings, including GP surgeries and most hospital departments. Little was done about this.
 

NICE will force more testing action
To increase testing, the Department of Health asked NICE to produce public health guidance to increase HIV testing both among men who have sex with men and among black African communities. The new NICE guidance supports most of the BHIVA and BASHH testing recommendations, and goes further with some recommendations.
 

There are two guidelines - one to increase testing in men who ave sex with men, and a the other for increasing testing among black African people.
 

Local strategies needed

For both men who have sex with men and for black Africans in England, NICE recommends preparing local strategies to increase HIV testing, developed in consultation with community organisations and the people affected. These strategies should focus on sections of the community who are less likely to use services. Community engagement and involvement is particularly important for black African communities.
 

Africans - involve people as champions and leaders
NICE recommends that black Africans in England should be recruited and trained to act as ‘health champions’ and ‘role models’. HIV testing work must deal with people’s misunderstandings and ignorance about HIV, testing and treatment, and must promote the benefits of early diagnosis and tackle HIV-related stigma.
 

The guidance for black African communities includes providing HIV testing outside sexual health clinics. This is because the evidence from the literature is that HIV testing in sexual health clinics is seen by some black Africans as stigmatising, complicated and time-consuming, while HIV testing in other healthcare settings was welcomed.
 

NICE recommends that general practitioners should routinely offer an HIV test to black Africans who have not tested before or who have had a new sexual partner since the last negative test. In hospitals and other healthcare settings, an opt-out test should be routinely provided to black Africans who are having blood taken for other reasons.
 

Testing in sex venues to reach gay men
Health promotion interventions promoting testing to men who have sex with men should include venues, such as saunas, clubs and cruising areas, or websites, which facilitate sex between men.
NICE appears more enthusiastic than BHIVA about community testing in sex on the premises venues. In gay venues, NICE says rapid tests (using mouth swabs or finger-prick blood samples) should be provided by trained staff, in a secluded or private area.
 

NICE’s guidance for men who have sex with men encourages testing in primary care (GPs), but not in secondary care (hospitals). The BHIVA guidelines are different, and recommend that all healthcare settings should offer an HIV test to any man who says he has sex with other men.
 

NICE recommends that GP surgeries should recommend all males to have HIV tests where the surgery is in an area with a large gay community or theer is a high rate of HIV.
 

Carl Burnell, of the gay men’s health charity GMFA, questions whether this will is work, because of the many other demands on GP surgery capacity. “The strategy assumes that other services are running like clockwork and have capacity to offer HIV testing,” he said.
 

Clear path from testing to services
All testing services need clear pathways for people to obtain any necessary confirmation of the HIV test result, HIV treatment services and HIV support groups. People who test negative may need help through counselling and safer sex interventions.
 

The draft guidance comes before results are published on several Department of Health funded pilot projects evaluating new testing strategies.
 

NICE’s guidance is open for feedback and comments until late November. The final NICE HIV testing guidance will appear in March 2011.

HIV testing guidelines for MSM 

HIV testing guidleines for black Africans in England
 

Source

Police, Prosecutors, Press Bungle HIV Crime

posted: 01/09/2010

Despite new police HIV crime investigation guidelines, HIV prosecution guidelines and new press HIV reporting guidelines, it appears that all were ignored and left on office shelves in the latest prosecution for reckless HIV transmission.
 

A man accused of passing on HIV to a woman of 19 was jailed for a year, and given a five year sexual offences prevention order yesterday.

Nicholas Richards, who is 31, and lived in Sittingbourne, Kent, admitted Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) for the HIV offence of reckless HIV transmission at a previous hearing at Maidstone Crown Court.
 

Richards was also given a five-year sexual offences prevention order, which stops him from having unprotected sex or not telling his partners about his HIV.
 

He was jailed yesterday for a year on that charge and was sentenced to a further year for an unrelated GBH charge, for attacking a man in Medway, Kent.  

The court heard Richards exposed the 19-year-old woman to HIV in June 2008. The young woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, found out she had HIV during routine blood tests when she became pregnant. Her baby does not have HIV, say the police.
 

Police comments
After the hearing, Det. Ch. Insp. Simon Wilson said the crimes committed by Richards were "abhorrent and callous" and had far-reaching consequences. He said: "Not only did he knowingly infect a young girl with HIV - a disease she will have to live with for the rest of her life, but he also selfishly put her child at risk too. Thankfully, the sheer bravery the victim showed in coming forward immediately and giving evidence in court helped us secure a conviction against him and I would pay tribute to her courage." He urged anyone else who had "fallen prey" to Richards to contact the police.
 

George House Trust comment

 
More Police, Crown Prosecution Service and Press failings

Because HIV crimes are complex to investigate and prove beyond reasonable doubt, and because of the harm HIV stigma and discrimination cause, police and prosecutors have strict guidance and policies to follow in HIV cases. This case seems to prove that these were ignored. The investigation and prosecution system cannot be relied on to work properly in all HIV cases.

Police

It appears that the Police ignored their own HIV investigation guidelines. They have clearly ignored their own Communication Strategy guidance, because Det. Ch. Insp. Simon Wilson should never have made his inaccurate and sensationalising comments and blatantly fished for other people to come forward who may have ‘fallen prey’ (his words) to the man.
 

Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service appear to have yet again ignored their own HIV prosecution policy and guidance. Prosecutor Roy Brown seems to have been the man responsible. Guilty pleas should not be accepted without rigorous efforts to obtain transmission evidence.There is no evidence from the media reports that phylogenetic analysis was carried out as the prosecution guidelines require. So we can't be sure the man found guilty did pass HIV to the young woman.

Press

It was only the middle of August, just a few weeks ago, that the managing editor of The Sun told us about his paper’s commitment to responsible reporting of HIV at the launch of NAT’s new press guidelines. Graham Dudman, Managing Editor at The Sun, we were told, ensures his staff use the guidelines. He says: “At The Sun we pride ourselves on getting the facts right and staying up to date. This can be a challenge in sensitive areas like HIV. NAT's guidelines for journalists are very useful, really simple to work with and lay out all the facts reporters need.”
 

He seems to have forgotten the press guidelines for HIV very, very quickly. The Sun’s headline for this HIV news story: ‘HIV fiend jailed for infecting girlfriend’
 

News reports

BBC

Independent

Daily Mail

The Sun

21st Century Press Guidelines

posted: 13/08/2010

The media reporting of HIV is often wrong and negative. New detailed Guidelines for Reporting HIV are out today to help editors and journalists write well about HIV in the UK.

The guidelines dispel common myths about HIV, provide up-to-date information and tell journalists where to go for more information.

The new guidelines, from NAT (National AIDS Trust), are backed by the National Union of Journalists, the Press Complaints Commission, and the Society of Editors.
 

Accurate, up to date, respectful

HIV has changed a lot in recent years. Testing and treatment, quality of life and life expectancy are radically better. The guidelines help journalists report about HIV in the 21st century. For example, it is no longer correct to suggest that HIV is a death sentence, that HIV automatically leads to AIDS, or that you must wait three or six months for a test, all of which have been said in recent news reports.
 

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT, says “The public get a lot of their knowledge about HIV from the press, so it is important journalists get it right. Accurate reporting benefits public health, dispels myths, undermines prejudice and increases understanding. We hope these guidelines will help journalists update their knowledge about HIV in the 21st century.”
 

News Mistakes

NAT monitors the press for inaccurate coverage about HIV. Some of the most common mistakes journalists make include suggesting there is a risk of HIV infection from discarded needles, biting, or spitting, reports often treat HIV and AIDS as if they are the same thing, and suggest HIV is deadly.
 

Graham Dudman, Managing Editor at The Sun, ensures his staff use the guidelines. He says:
“At The Sun we pride ourselves on getting the facts right and staying up to date. This can be a challenge in sensitive areas like HIV. NAT's guidelines for journalists are very useful, really simple to work with and lay out all the facts reporters need.”

George House Trust hopes The Sun reports HIV responsibly in future – in June its front page was a scare-mongering report suggesting British troops could get HIV from old needles or razor blades in Afghanistan. It published this on the front page, despite including a comment from NAT denying the claim that troops could be infected in this way. There was no HIV risk to troops but The Sun still printed the story, and on the front page. This was then repeated elsewhere, including on BBC radio.

Stephen Abell, Director of the Press Complaints Commission said "While public and media understanding of HIV and AIDS has improved, it remains vital that the press takes particular care when reporting on these issues - both by being accurate and by respecting the privacy of those who live with either condition. The PCC has a clear role to play in resolving complaints, upholding and improving standards, and providing a public service to those who have concerns about the press."

Download the Guidelines for Reporting HIV 
 

French, Swahili, Shona, Luganda, Portuguese Speakers

posted: 08/06/2010

The Black Health Agency in Manchester wants helpline advisers for the national African AIDS Helpline that it provides.You must speak English and one (or more) of these languages fluently.
 

The work is part time and a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 8 hours per week (Thursdays) and the pay is £8.25 per hour. The work will be irregular – you would only be asked to work when regular staff are absent because of holiday, sickness, at meetings or in training.  The law says you must have permission to work in the UK.
 

You would provide a comprehensive range of over the telephone advice and information on Sexual Health, HIV and AIDS, as well information about specialist HIV testing, treatment and support services available to Africans all over England.
 

Support Africans with HIV
You will provide emotional support to people living with HIV as well as advice and information to people affected by HIV/AIDS (e.g. family members, partners and carers of those living with HIV).
You must be able to deal with these calls sensitively, in a non-judgemental way and appropriately. You must have an understanding and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and related issues facing African people with HIV/AIDS.
 

More Information

For an informal chat, or more information, please call Gertrude Wafula on 0161 232 5393.
For an application pack, please contact Melanie Lathrope on 0845 450 4247 or email her  
Closing date for applications is Friday 18th June 2010.
 

African AIDS Helpline

HIV Information on Tour

posted: 17/05/2010

UPDATED 20 MAY - LEEDS and NEWCASTLE DATES CORRECTED

HIV and Your Body is the theme for free workshops for people living with HIV. Find out more about HIV and your Heart, Kidneys, Bones, Liver, and Body Shape.

Robert Fieldhouse, the editor of Baseline, is running a series of talks in the North-West, Midlands, West Yorkshire and North East of England.
 

Blackburn        with THRIVINE at Jarman Centre 53 James Street, Blackburn, Lancashire BB1 6BE
contact James 01254 263 525
Saturday 22 May 2pm HIV and your Bones
Tuesday 17 August 6pm Choice of HIV and Your …. Heart, Kidneys, Liver, and Body Shape

Manchester      at Black Health Agency (BHA) 464 Chester Road, Manchester M16 9HE
Monday 5 July                1pm       HIV and your Kidneys
Monday 6 September       1pm       Choice of HIV and Your …. Heart, Bones, Liver, and Body Shape
contact BHA 0845 450 4247

Birmingham         at ABPLus 29-30 Lower Essex Street, Birmingham, B5 6SN 

Tuesday 13 July             7pm       HIV and your Liver
Tuesday 10 August         7pm       Choice of HIV and Your …. Heart, Kidneys, Bones, and Body Shape

Leeds                      at Skyline 4th floor Gallery House, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1

CORRECTED DATES

Thursday 8 JULY              6pm       HIV and your Body Shape
Thursday 5 August          6pm       Choice of HIV and Your …. Heart, Kidneys, Bones, and Liver
 

Newcastle upon Tyne       at Body Positive North East 12 Upper Princess Square, Newcastle, NE1 0191 232 2855
Wednesday 7 JULY       3.30pm         HIV and your Heart

Wednesday 4 AUGUST        3.30pm         Choice of HIV and Your …. Heart, Kidneys, Bones, and Liver
The Leeds and Newcastle dates on the postcard with detilas of this talks tour are incorrect. Robert has told us the corrected dates above.

Further details from the speaker Robert Fieldhouse 07886 159 735 or by email

These talks are all funded by the drugs company Gilead Sciences