Concerns over late HIV diagnosis in Gloucestershire

There is concern over the levels of late diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Gloucestershire.

HIV is a virus that damages the cells in a person’s immune system and weakens their ability to fight everyday infections and disease.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS, is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when someone’s immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus.

And while AIDS cannot be transmitted from one person to another, the HIV virus can.

There is currently no cure for HIV, but there are very effective drug treatments that allow most people with the virus to live a long and healthy life.

With an early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any AIDS-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan.

But in Gloucestershire there is concern among public health chiefs over the rate of late diagnosis.

The county’s performance is significantly worse than their peer group and the council says it’s a bit of a mystery.

Gloucestershire County Council’s policy, performance and governance director Rob Ayliffe told the corporate overview and scrutiny committee earlier this week that late diagnosis of HIV has been a persistent issue.

He made the comments while councillors discussed the latest performance benchmarking report.

It shows the county the rate of late diagnisis is 56.3 per cent compared to the peer group average of 43.4 per cent.

Mr Ayliffe said: “It’s one of those, that if I’m being honest, is a bit of a mystery as to what the cause is and what we need to do.

The issue behind the indicator is obviously the sooner you are diagnosed as having HIV, the quicker and more effective the treatment is.

“Although, obviously, it’s becoming more effective all of the time anyway. But that is an area where for a number of years we’ve been below the peer group average.”

Hope House, based at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, offers online home testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis.

They say people are often unaware they have an STI, so it is important for people who change their sexual partner to check for infections.

Click here for more information about how to order a test.

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