The British government is continuing to play a valuable leading role in helping tackle HIV at the global level.
But its HIV strategy within the UK itself is less impressive and there is a sense that government ministers have lost their sense of urgency.
Despite thousands of new HIV infections in Britain every year, there are no major public HIV awareness and prevention campaigns.
Where are the TV and billboard safer sex adverts? Each new generation needs educating about risky behaviour, while older generations need reminding and encouraging, so they sustain safer sex.
“Given the scale of the epidemic, the government’s strategy seems woefully inadequate.”
In 2011, 6,280 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in the UK, according to a report out this week from the Health Protection Agency.
It estimated that 96,000 people were living with HIV in the UK by the end of 2011, an increase from 91,500 in 2010. A quarter of these people do not know they are infected because they haven’t been tested. Some of them may be unwittingly putting their partners at risk.
Given the scale of the epidemic, and its potential to get worse, the government’s strategy seems woefully inadequate.
Some HIV services and treatments are under threat of cuts. Already, the closure or merger of some local and regional HIV services means that many people with HIV now have to travel longer distances to access good quality care and support.
In addition, some clinics are under pressure to prescribe cheaper HIV drugs, which may not be as effective for some patients and which may have more severe side effects. This could put at risk the health of some people with HIV.
Education about HIV is seriously deficient in most schools. Frank and detailed age-appropriate HIV awareness and prevention education should be mandatory from primary level onwards, before pupils become sexually active and adopt unsafe sexual habits.
If safer sex is understood at an early age, it is more likely to be practised when a person is older.
Teaching pupils how to roll a condom on a banana is not sufficient. Very few students learn how to negotiate safer sex when their partner doesn’t want to use a condom. There is no popularisation of less risky alternatives to intercourse, such as body rubbing, oral sex and mutual masturbation. The value of these safer alternatives should be explained in all secondary schools.
“A bit of “shock and awe” may be more effective.”
Above all, the government and HIV charities should rethink safer-sex advertising campaigns.
Some of these need to be more hard-hitting. A bit of “shock and awe” may be more effective, at least for some people. Making sure the public see the long-term reality of HIV might be a wake-up call. It could help undermine the casual attitude that HIV can be solved by popping a daily pill.
People need to be informed that although HIV is increasingly a manageable condition like diabetes, some people with the virus are still dying and others are prone to more secondary illnesses, discomforting side-effects and a shorter life expectancy.
We can’t carry on with the current rate of new HIV infections. It’s straining the NHS during a period of austerity and, more importantly, turning too many people’s lives upside down.
Over to you, Mr Cameron.
- Peter Tatchell is a journalist and political campaigner. You can follow him on Twitter. For more on his human rights campaigns and to support his work, visit his website.
