Instant HIV tests at Superdrug

posted: 04/03/2010

Superdrug have started selling the £79 InstiTest, which gives a HIV result in just 60 seconds from a tiny fingertip blood sample. Nurses will offer the confidential HIV test in their Piccadilly central Manchester store and at other stores in Brighton, Edinburgh, Croydon, Cardiff, and Newcastle. Trials show InstiTest is 99.96 per cent accurate.

People who get a positive test result are referred to an NHS clinic for the result to be double checked and so people get to see a HIV specialist quickly. They will even make the appointment for people.
 

Before the test the nurse and patient discuss the process and the nurse will obtain full consent for the test. The registered nurses have had training in the use of the HIV test kit and on patient assessment, and experience in counselling in sexual health. All testing is confidential – no identification is required just to take the test and get a verbal result, though they will ask for your name and birth date. If you want a written note of the result then identity will be checked with photo ID.
 

Most HIV tests are free and provided at NHS sexual health clinics or in some community settings, for instance LGF run a testing service for gay and bisexual men in Manchester’s gay village. You can also ask your GP for a free HIV test. Offering HIV tests for payment in city-centre pharmacies is something new in this country.
 

The NAT (National Aids Trust) welcomed the new service move, saying: "If someone gets diagnosed early they can live a long, active life with HIV. But if they delay, they can become very ill and put their partners at risk too."
 

Superdrug, Piccadilly, Manchester 7-9 Piccadilly, opposite Piccadilly Gardens, in central Manchester, M1 1LY 0161 834 6091
The nurse / doctor is normally available to carry out HIV tests between 09.00 and 18.00 on Monday - Fridays and between 09.00 and 15.00 on Saturdays.

George House Trust comment

We are keen that people have easy access to HIV testing – but you can always have a test for free at the STI clinic, at LGF and other community services, or through your GP. Decide if you want to spend almost £80 to find out you have HIV when that would then have to be checked at the STI clinic.
 

Illegal Home HIV Test Kits

HIV home testing kits that give instant results are also on sale to UK consumers online - which is banned by law, according to Which? magazine. The consumer magazine has reported four websites to the Department of Health, and they are now being investigated.

Which? bought test kits from Safescreen, Labpro, and Self Tests Direct. They also tried a fourth site called Mid Pacific Medical but that test hasn’t arrived yet.

Self Tests Direct said: ‘We had no idea we weren’t supposed to sell these kits in the UK.’ It has now removed these from sale on the web.

HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust told PinkPaper.com: "Because people can't buy home testing kits legally they're buying kits on the internet - and these aren't subject to any form of UK quality control. As well as that, they don't tell you where you can go for help to cope with your result, or provide information about safer sex. More worryingly, because they aren't made to UK standards the results might not be accurate. Home testing kits can be reliable and safe but the high standards that are essential for an accurate test can only be achieved through regulation - and that won't happen when they're illegal."
 

Sources        illegal web sales         Superdrug tests         Superdrug press statement
 

Protection Gaps for Migrant Women

posted: 11/05/2009

The HIV Immigration Project has produced a useful report highlighting the gaps in protection women migrants with HIV still face. The Project brought together three organisations, Positively Women, Asylum Aid, and the International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).

Throughout the Project the case of N v the Home Secretary was going through the courts. This case decided when removing a person living with HIV was a breach of human rights because appropriate treatment would not be available or accessible in their country of origin. The numerous court decisions in this case, as it went all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, has caused a clear protection gap for women living with HIV to appear.

Protection gaps for HIV+ migrant women
To tackle the protection gap the Project asked ICW to find out about treatment and discrimination in women’s countries of origin, and to offer one-to-one advice. Asylum Aid looked for other ways to obtain protection through legal avenues.

In one case [CA v Home Secretary] the Appeal Court ruled that removing a mother living with HIV to her country of origin, where her child would become infected fatally through feeding, was the sort of inhuman treatment prohibited by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This led the way for other similar cases where the mother is forced to contribute to and observe the avoidable death of her child.

New ways to improve the immigration situation of some women living with HIV were identified by Asylum Aid. They include:

• Women whose children were HIV positive;
• Women who are HIV positive and where there is no treatment for the woman on return and the HIV negative child could be left orphaned with no one to look after them;
• Women who were granted Exceptional Leave to Remain (ELR), or Discretionary Leave (DL), or Humanitarian Protection (HP), on the grounds of their health prior to the decision in N., particularly if they have been in the UK for some time and have been receiving treatment;
• Women from Zimbabwe (and possibly other countries) who would be discriminated against in treatment, because of their actual or assumed political opinions
• Under Immigration Rule 395C, all women living with HIV who do not have leave to enter or remain will be able to make representations citing their compassionate circumstances, before they are removed, and these will have to be considered before their removal.

Recent developments in case law on Article 8 of the ECHR also provide greater protection against removal for women who have established families in the UK. Applications on these lines will depend upon the facts of each case.

Most women left unprotected against removal

However, the protection gap since the case of N decision still means that the most women living with HIV now have no right to be protected from removal from the UK simply because of HIV. These women will continue to live without formal immigration status in the UK with all the many problems this causes, or they may have to return to countries where the provision of life-prolonging treatments are less effective, not available, or only available at great cost.

‘A positive partnership: The HIV Immigration Project 2003-2009
a joint project by Positively Women, Asylum Aid and International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS’

HIV - Decriminalise Drugs Worldwide

posted: 20/04/2009

Michele Kazatchkine's surprise intervention calling for the decriminalisation of drug users was widely welcomed by HIV and drugs campaigners who have also been calling for this. Michele Kaztchkine is head of the influential Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and was speaking at the 20th International Harm Reduction conference in Bangkok.

Decriminalising personal drug consumption is highly sensitive and, despite intensive lobbying of governments about the possible advantages for public health, many politicians regard the idea of withdrawing criminal sanctions for drug use as politically toxic.

Sharing drug injection equipment, like needles, almost always leads to the passing on HIV. Even though the Global Fund and others have put a lot of money into drug harm reduction, rates of HIV transmission by sharing drug kit have remained stubbornly high.
That Kazatchkine has chosen to speak out now is not a coincidence. It comes close on the heels of renewed and fiercely fought debate on the issue, when the Vatican in Rome attempted to block UN reform of international drugs policy.

Advocates for reform were outraged when in February the pope issued a statement condemning harm reduction strategies as "anti-life" and, in the kind of language guaranteed to stoke up opposition to wider reform, claimed that assisting addicts to access help without fear of criminal penalty would lead to the "liberalisation of the use of drugs".

If the Vatican's statement was inflammatory, its timing also riled. According to campaigners it torpedoed a crucial UN declaration by exacerbating disagreements between countries about whether to collectively endorse harm reduction strategies such as the provision of the drug substitute, methadone.
 

UN and individual government officials were meeting in February in Vienna as part of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to work on a new drugs "Declaration of Intent" for the next decade – a significant stage in the evolution of international drugs policy – when the pope's comments were released. The Vatican's action led to Italy withdrawing from a broad EU coalition supporting global harm reduction strategies, weakening the EU in the face of strong opposition from the US, Russia and Japan.
 

The UK-based drugs charity, Release, an organisation at the forefront of campaigns for decriminalisation, said the outcome was a "weak and hugely disappointing" declaration. A spokeswoman said that despite "a wealth of evidence to support its effectiveness", harm reduction had been sacrificed in favour of ineffective criminal sanctions. "Pages and pages of text endorsed the continuation of tackling drug supply and drug use through zero-tolerance criminal sanctions and law enforcement, a policy that has failed the tens of thousands of injecting drug users now infected with HIV."
 

HIV - how many infected through drug use?
Obtaining exact figures for the number of injecting drug users globally or the proportion of users living with HIV is problematic. Robust data is difficult to come by due to a number of factors including the fact that illegality discourages people coming forward. Nevertheless there are some reliable estimates and they help explain the current sense of urgency around rates of HIV infection among IV drug users. There are about 33 million people living with HIV globally according to UNAIDS, which compiles statistics for the organisation. It estimates that in 2007 (the most recent year for which data is available), around 2-3 million of the world's 16 million or so intravenous (IV) drug users were likely to be infected with the HIV virus.
 

Drugs use causes over 80% of all HIV infections in Eastern Europe and central Asia
Illustrating the threat currently presented by HIV infection via IV drug use, a spokeswoman said: "Use of contaminated injection during drug use accounts for more than 80% of all HIV infections in Eastern Europe and central Asia." It is also a "major entry point" for infection in other parts of the world including the Middle East and Latin America. "HIV prevalence among some groups in these regions is estimated at over 40%," she added. In addition – and particularly importantly for those such as Kazatchkine advocating decriminalisation – incarceration for possession of drugs further increases their risk of contracting or transmitting HIV, according to UNAIDS.
 

Harm reduction works – look at Britain
In its latest report on the global HIV epidemic, UNAIDS echoes the concerns of Kazatchkine. "Until sufficient political will exists to address the sources of HIV risk and vulnerability, the epidemic will continue to expand," it concludes. It also highlights that where countries have adopted a "comprehensive approach" to HIV and drug use (it includes Britain on its list), the spread of HIV among those who inject drugs has slowed.
 

Kazatchkine argues that it is ultimately "public health oriented pragmatism" that produces results, not misguided criminalisation. However, if the Vienna conference is anything to go by, the widespread adoption of such an approach is still some way off.
As the Global Fund and other bodies working to fight the spread of HIV scramble for extra money in extremely challenging financial times, Kazatchkine says many are waiting with interest to see what sort of lead the US will take on the issue under Barack Obama. With around half of all people living with HIV in the US coming from the African-American community (despite accounting for just 12% of the population), the pressure will be on Obama to act.
 

"There are strong opponents to harm reduction both among the Republicans and the Democrats," Kazatchkine says. But, he adds, "given the unequal risk for African Americans becoming infected by HIV compared to the white population in the US", the issue is one he would expect the Obama administration to address.
 

The use of illicit drugs must be decriminalised if efforts to halt the spread of HIV are to succeed, one of the world's leading independent authorities on the disease has warned.
 

In an unprecedented attack on global drugs policy, Michele Kazatchkine, head of the influential Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told the Observer that, without a radical overhaul of laws that lead to hundreds of thousands of drug users being imprisoned or denied access to safe treatment, the millions of pounds spent on fighting HIV will be wasted.
 

Kazatchkine used his keynote speech at the 20th International Harm Reduction Association conference today in Bangkok to expose the failures of policies which treat addiction as a crime. He accused governments of using what he calls "repressive" measures that deny addicts human rights rather than putting public health needs first.
 

Harm reduction works
He argued that governments should fully commit to the widespread provision of harm reduction strategies aimed at intravenous drug users, such as free needle exchanges and providing substitutes to illicit drugs, such as methadone.
 

Drugs law and policing cause health harm
"A repressive way of dealing with drug users is a way of facilitating the spread of the [HIV/Aids] epidemic," Kazatchkine said. "If you know you will be arrested, you will not go for treatment. I say drug use must not be criminalised. Criminalise trafficking, not users. From a scientific perspective, I cannot understand the repressive policy perspective."
 

He condemns policymakers who argue that, because drug users frequently turn to crime to fund their habit, it justifies making it a criminal justice issue. Harm reduction both helps the addict and wider society and reduces the need to commit crime, he said. All of the groups affected by HIV, (for example heterosexual and gay African people, gay men, children infected by mothers) have seen great reductions in death rates, apart from one – injecting drug users.
 

"The one population where [HIV] mortality has been untouched - and in fact has worsened - has been IV [intravenous] drug users. It's amazing, because what we call harm reduction, such as exchanging needles, has been scientifically proven as the most effective.
 

"This is why I started my speech in Bangkok by mentioning the contrast between major progress achieved in decreasing mortality from HIV in the poorest countries of the world versus the total lack of progress for what is the main route of transmission in most parts of the world outside Africa."
 

Fears of criticism
Kazatchkine suggested that politicians feared that the public would label them soft on drugs. A doctor and respected HIV expert with 20 years in the field, he has in his two years at the helm of the Global Fund overseen some of the most dramatic improvements in treatment and prevention of HIV globally.
 

Since it was established in 2001, the fund has received $21bn in contributions from the world's wealthiest nations and used it to play a significant part in reducing rates of new HIV infections. It has also contributed to the distribution of much needed life-preserving anti-retroviral drugs to millions of people already diagnosed.
 

Alex Stevens, a senior research fellow specialising in drugs and criminalisation at the University of Kent, said the speech highlights many of the troubling consequences of criminal justice approaches to drugs policy.
 

"In many countries, serious human rights infringements are committed in the name of fighting drugs," he said. "These include the use of the death penalty for drug offences, compulsory treatment regimes that include methods (such as physical beatings) that are akin to torture, and, for example in the USA, depriving convicted drug law offenders of the right to vote."
Stevens said that, while the UK was ahead of many other countries on harm reduction, its tendency to criminalise drug users undermine its efforts.
 

Total global rethink on drugs needed

What is needed, Kazatchkine argues, is a total rethink of world drugs policies. "What I'm saying is that government's function is to protect their citizens. This is why harm reduction should be supported by all governments everywhere."
 

Source

earlier report

Positive Women - Rights and Social Wrongs

posted: 29/01/2009

Hear and watch a talk by the well-known and respected human rights barrister Helena Kennedy QC to Sophia, on prosecutions for HIV transmission.

Sophia is a network of women and organisations around the UK, part of the UNAIDS-coordinated Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. You can sign up for e-mail updates from Sophia at the bottom of this page

Sophia aims to:

• Create effective, long-lasting policy change, to provide HIV prevention for women and better access to treatment for women with HIV.
• Promote HIV awareness amongst organisations, influential individuals, and women, so that they commit to fighting the HIV pandemic.
• Promote inclusion and access to their rights for women with HIV throughout the world.

Sophia organises awareness-raising events, shares experiences and best practice, lobbies decision-makers and opinion-formers, and provides an open forum for anyone concerned about HIV and how it affects women and girls. Many of their current supporters are individuals active in development, health and HIV work, and many others contribute experience from business, law and education.

Take action for positive change: find out more, use your influence and talk to your colleagues, friends and family members.

Helena's talk - Legal Rights and Social Wrongs needs the Flash player installed on your computer. Go here to download the latest version of Flash

Hear and watch the talk by human rights barrister Helena Kennedy to Sophia

Comments from the audience

"I found Helena Kennedy's talk rousing and delivered in such a way as to be appealing and accessible to a wide range of people, whether or not they had direct personal experience of living with HIV or AIDS. I also came away quite profoundly affected by meeting some of the women from PozFem and Positively Women, and reading the literature included in the packs (which I read from cover to cover!) that were handed out. I would like to know more about the work of SOPHIA and these other organisations, and to be able to offer assistance in any way I can." Angela Randall (Lawyer)

"I came along to the event to further my knowledge about HIV and AIDS, hear some new perspective, and challenge the views I already had. As a trainee social worker I have recently become really aware of the issues surrounding transmission, particularly concerning negative media coverage about prosecution, which prevents people from getting tested. This lecture made me aware of all the factors that are in place, particularly from the perspective of a person living with HIV, which is often the forgotten voice in the media, both in the UK and abroad. One of the best elements of the event was the emphasis upon action, as we can learn about an issue endlessly but it really is action that makes a difference. I took in a lot from the lecture, and have used some of the material and somewhat unknown statistics to talk to my own peers about sexual health and HIV. I have also not only tried to inform but to encourage them in turn to talk to their peers so that we all become advocates for the cause, which was a clear message in the lecture." Rhiannon Spencer (Trainee Social worker)

"As someone who works in the commercial legal world, I am not exposed to discussions about HIV/AIDS in my daily life. This lecture was a real eye-opener for me, leaving me feeling personally implicated in the discussions about general levels of ignorance and neglect. So I see this as a call to arms, and hope to involve some of the law firms I work with in the drive to educate and engage." Caroline Walker (Legal research consultant)

"I was pleased to be able to hear Helena Kennedy speak at the lecture organised by the Sophia Forum recently. It was an informative and well organised event which attracted an interesting and diverse audience. Well done!" Sarah Hayward
 

source

HIV, Police and Prosecutions - Call for Change

posted: 29/01/2009

A new report by the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) launched yesterday at the House of Commons has revealed a systematic mishandling of complaints for alleged criminal HIV transmission in England & Wales. The report, Policing Transmission was welcomed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), which acknowledged that “too many times we have got it wrong". George House Trust was represented on the panel which reviewed police handling of some of the key cases.

There have been “scores, if not hundreds” of arrests since the first conviction for reckless HIV transmission in England and Wales (Mohammed Dica in October 2003), noted THT's Sir Nick Partridge speaking at the launch of the report in the House of Commons, hosted by Lord Norman Fowler, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS.

Investigations harm even when they are dropped

Sir Nick said that whilst most police investigations were dropped due to a lack of evidence, during the course of these ‘failed’ investigations - which had lasted up to a year - “lives had been turned upside-down and some came close to being destroyed”.

Arrests every fortnight

During the period 2005-6, there was an average of one arrest every two weeks. Concerned at this number of arrests and aware of the cost, in terms of “public resources and private misery”, THT approached ACPO and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in order to examine the role of the police in criminal HIV transmission investigations.

This resulted in detailed, but anonymised, police notes from six cases that occurred between 2004 and 2007 (some prosecuted, some not) being made available to a community advisory panel that included representatives from HIV civil society organisations, including the National AIDS Trust, George House Trust and the African HIV Prevention Network. The panel reviewed the notes in collaboration with ACPO and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and this report publishes their findings and recommendations.

Good police practice found but mainly examples of failings

The report found that although there were some examples of good practice, much more was found to be lacking, including:

• A poor police understanding of HIV, leading to inappropriate management of cases.
• A lack of clarity amongst police officers about the current law, and what is, and what is not, an offence. (THT is aware of many investigations following allegations of unprotected sex without disclosure where there was no transmission, which is not even an offence in England & Wales.)
• Unnecessarily long and drawn-out investigations, ranging between four and twelve months for cases that did not result in prosecution, and between six and 34 months for those that did.
• Difficulties in reconciling the realities of HIV transmission with the evidence requirements for the criminal charge. The report points out that “police are having to manage cases brought under a law never designed for such scientific complexity” and notes that the police “repeatedly misinterpreted the strength of their scientific evidence”. This is a gentle way of saying the police were dazzled by scientific reports, and misread them to mean person A infected person B, to the exclusion of all other people, when science cannot prove this at all.

What should be done?

The report makes 19 recommendations, including:

• A dedicated police officer should be trained and made available in each force. This officer would specialise in criminal HIV transmission complaints and investigations.
• Easy to understand guides to HIV transmission, disclosure, and the law should be written and made available to every police officer.
• A series of standard questions should be developed to establish at an early stage whether a viable case exists.
• Wider investigations beyond the original complaint should only take place once it is established that the original complainant is HIV-positive themselves.

The price of prosecutions - three people's stories

At yesterday’s launch THT’s Sir Nick eloquently put a human face on the report by highlighting three people's stories of investigations which reveal how difficult, complex and sensitive allegations of reckless HIV transmission are for all parties involved, including the police.

• ‘David’ was accused of recklessly infecting two men and, following his arrest, was held in custody for several months and refused bail because the police erroneously believed he was “a danger to the public”. After phylogenetic analysis had been performed on all three men, it became clear that ‘David’ could not have been the source of either man’s infection, the case was dropped and 'David' was finally released from custody.
• ‘Cesar’ only discovered he was HIV-positive when police told him when they arrived on his doorstep to arrest him for reckless HIV transmission. (Since one of the essentials for this ‘crime’ is to be aware of one’s HIV status, this was a complaint that could not succeed)
• ‘Elizabeth’ accused her married lover of recklessly giving her HIV and complained to the police. However, charges were dropped after months of investigations, which included detailed sexual histories and the release of sensitive medical records, since the evidence suggested that ‘Elizabeth’ had, in fact, infected her lover.

Trying hard but nearly HIV clueless

Sir Nick said that the report suggests that all complaints and investigations were done in good faith, but that in almost every case, the lead officer had neither enough knowledge of HIV issues, nor anywhere to turn for guidance.

He added that the police appear to have an understanding of HIV that is “at least ten years out of date", and that this is not unique in the criminal justice system and is more a reflection of the general public’s lack of knowledge and attitudes about HIV.

We know that HIV ignorance is widespread throughout the criminal justice system - most Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors are as ignorant about HIV as the police, many defence solicitors and barristers are hardly better, the forensic laboratories often don't point out the limitations of their supposed "scientific proof", and judges sometimes appear to share the widespread ignorance. And it is unlikely juries are any better informed than these other players in the criminal justice system.

Lancashire Deputy Chief Constable welcomes report

Mike Cunningham, Deputy Chief Constable of Lancashire, spoke on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) which welcomed the report. He said that he appreciated the fact that ACPO had had the opportunity to be part of the review process, and not just to be the subject of it.

“Too many times we have got it wrong,” he admitted. “We want to put things right and not just deny [that things have gone wrong].” Referring to the case studies presented by Sir Nick, he added that the police must be aware of the difficulties involved and “humanise” each individual affected by an investigation.

Kit Malthouse, London’s Deputy Major for Policing, and deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority also welcomed the report which he hoped would lead to the production of an “easy guide” to HIV for London’s police. He added that with yesterday’s appointment of Sir Paul Stephenson as the replacement for Sir Ian Blair as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, policing in the capital would become “more open”, and that the London police service was committed to providing “the best possible service to everyone”.

Next Step - a Good Practice Guide

The project will now begin its second stage - the National AIDS Trust will now lead the  production of good practice guidance for the police in criminal HIV transmission investigations, supported by THT, ACPO, the MPS and a community advisory panel, to which George House Trust hopes to contribute.

Policing Transmission report 

also available direct from THT here.

Source