From PinkNews:
The latest figures released today from the Health Protection Agency reveal that the number of gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV in the UK is at its highest rate since the start of the epidemic.
2,700 gay and bisexual men were newly diagnosed last year, the highest number ever.
Across the UK 1 in 20 gay and bisexual men are now living with HIV and estimates suggest this figure is as high as 1 in 10 in London.
The increase in diagnosis comes at a time when the National AIDS Trust claims funding for HIV prevention is inadequate.
In the past 10 years the number of people being seen for HIV care has more than trebled, but a recent National AIDS Trust survey into Primary Care Trusts revealed that in the same period the amount spent on HIV prevention has decreased.
Wow, this story is wrong in every way imagineable! How could funding for prevention be down? How could infections be skyrocketing?
I suspect complacency has set in. Just because HIV-positive people are living much longer lives than they did back in the 1980's doesn't mean that HIV is like catching the flu. Fortunately research has enabled doctors to greatly enhance the quality of people's lives, but it is still an extremely serious and potentially deadly disease, and it can usually be prevented.
AIDS awareness is still critical beyond the GLBT community. Governments need to take it seriously and, more importantly, so do individuals. It is still true that the lives you may save are you own and the person you love.
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ReplyDeleteIs it any wonder that HIV infection within the UK's gay 'community' (such a ridiculous word used to ghettoise us) is spiralling upwards when charities like the appalling Body Positive North West (BPNW) in Manchester, England have been taken over by politically-correct, self-serving 'do-gooders' with their own narrow agendas?
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that BPNW was originally set up over 20 years ago by the then despised HIV-spreading 'faggots' with an enlightened 'open to all' policy. That's before the finger pointing self-righteous lobby realised (some still don't) that gay men were only an 'early marker' for society as a whole.
Please visit www.bodypositivenw.blogspot.com for information.