Views

Sharing our developing Community of Practice and opportunities to get involved

Oluwakemi Agunbiade reflects on the persistent inequalities in HIV testing and health outcomes for people living with HIV and the action needed to be taken for Black communities.

Oluwakemi Agunbiade reflects on the impact of the Timms Review and potential changes in disability benefits for people living with HIV.

Treatment for HIV involves combining drugs from three different classes of anti-retroviral (ARVs) and there are single pill regimens that contain such combinations. Pills which only have to be taken with one or two others, and only once a day, are also available and are popular.

Like many people I was alarmed this morning to hear Nigel Farage’s comments to Newsweek and on the radio about not letting migrants with HIV into the UK. What he has said, and how he responded when challenged about these positions, shows a disturbing lack of knowledge about the reality of HIV today.

Last week Public Health England launched a new publication, Making it work: a guide to whole system commissioning for sexual and reproductive health and HIV. This is a must-read guide for anyone involved in the commissioning of HIV services - and we immediately took to Facebook and Twitter to say as much.

There have been a number of reports of on an HIV criminalisation case in the media this week, describing the man involved as ‘knowingly’ infecting his then girlfriend.

Sexual health remains for most people a sensitive and private matter – if we go to a sexual health clinic we expect the information they record about our sexual behaviour, about the tests we have, any STIs diagnosed and the treatment provided, to be kept confidential.

Today is the final day of AIDS 2014, the 20th International AIDS Conference hosted in Melbourne this week. Despite the devastating start to the conference, with the loss of delegates on board flight MH17, the week has been revitalising for the international HIV community and we end AIDS 2014 with a strong sense of current priorities in the fight against HIV. Here are my four top messages from the conference, and what I think they mean for the UK's efforts to tackle HIV: