‘Get tested’ plea as hospital launches HIV pilot
IT CAN be something as painless as a pinprick on the end of a finger that could save patients from serious complications in later life.
But while two out of every 1,000 people in Leeds have HIV, an eighth of those infected are unaware, new figures reveal.
Today, ahead of national HIV Testing Week, health bosses have announced that the city’s A&E departments will now be taking part in a new pilot to boost diagnoses numbers.
Patients who undergo routine blood tests at emergency departments in Leeds will now also be tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C as part of the groundbreaking six-month pilot programme.
“If the 13 per cent of people in Leeds who don’t know they have the virus were diagnosed, it would be the end of HIV here,” says James Ward, from Leeds, who was diagnosed himself aged 22.
Now 47, he lives a healthy life, supports others with HIV and now has “undetectable” levels of the virus, after starting treatment two years ago when doctors finally recommended it following a change in guidelines.
James is urging people to get tested and has backed the pilot run by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Human immunodeficiency virus – or HIV – damages cells in the immune system and weakens the person’s ability to fight everyday infections and disease.
Breakthroughs over the last decade mean that those diagnosed, even in later stages, can now continue their lives with a relatively normal life expectancy, in contrast to public opinion.
‘Effective treatment’, as it is known, typically involves patients taking daily tablets that keep the virus at bay, reducing it to levels described as “undetectable” that mean it can no longer be transmitted to others.
“It stops HIV replicating,” James says.
“Because it can’t reproduce, it drops down to undetectable levels and you can’t pass it on.”
He is among thousands of patients whose treatment consists of two tablets a day and a twiceyearly blood test.
“If everyone who had it was on treatment then HIV would be over,” he says.
“The only people who are passing on HIV are people who don’t know they have it. If you don’t think you have it and you potentially do, you are transmitting it to other people.”
Patients aged between 16 and 65, who undergo routine blood tests, will be provided with testing for the viruses at Leeds’s A&Es.