Number of HIV diagnoses doubles in the UK

A new routine hospital test to screen patients for HIV should be offered in hospitals, a health professional urges, as new figures released today reveal the number of cases has nearly doubled in a decade.

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence is releasing new guidance today, recommending increased testing for HIV in ‘key risk groups’.

It is hoped that increased testing will encourage early diagnosis, as figures show that three out of five people are diagnosed with HIV too late and die from the infection.

The figures released today by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) found that there were 1,950 new diagnoses for people infected with HIV in 2001.

But by 2010, this has jumped to 3,780 new diagnoses.

The group of people still at the highest risk of becoming infected is men having sex with men.

New cases in this at-risk group have increased by a staggering 70 per cent.

Dr Valerie Delpech, head of HIV surveillance at the HPA, is calling for routine testing and reinforcing the ‘safer sex message’.

She said: “An HIV test should be routinely offered and recommended to all general medical admissions to hospital in high prevalence areas (people with diagnosed HIV infection greater than 2 per 1,000 aged 15-59 years).  Similarly, testing new registrants in primary care should be implemented in high prevalence areas although the cost implications may be greater in this setting where there may be a greater reliance on point of care tests. These expanded HIV testing policies should be prioritised for implementation as soon as possible.