Cash call as Aids numbers increase

Nov 26 2007 by Audrey Barton, The Journal

A NORTH-EAST HIV charity is calling for more investment and testing after a 15% rise in the number of people in treatment in the region.

Despite this increase, the region continues to have the lowest number of people being treated for HIV in England.

The results come from Testing Times, a new report on sexual health and HIV in the UK in 2006 released by the Health Protection Agency.

It revealed that of the 52,083 people nationally receiving HIV-related health care in 2006, 868 were living in the North-East.

This compares to 754 people receiving care for HIV in the region in 2005.

The region also reported an increase in four of the most common sexually-transmitted infections – chlamydia, syphilis, herpes and genital warts.

Ewan Jenkins, regional manager of sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust in the North, said: “This report will make grim reading for local health services.

“If ever there was a case for investing more in HIV prevention and testing services, this is it.”

The largest proportion of the newly-diagnosed HIV cases were as a result of heterosexual contact, and the majority of these were likely to have been contracted abroad.

There were 42 cases transmitted as a result of sex between men, most of which were contracted in the UK. Much smaller numbers were as a result of injecting drug use, blood, tissue or blood products transfer or mother-to-baby transmission.