compiled by Bruce Wainwright and Martin Flynn
Cash boost for Africans
A £243,000 lottery grant has been awarded to Lambeth and Southwark’s African community. Twelve workers will now be employed to train volunteers in the community to teach people how to avoid HIV and maintain good sexual health.
Lambeth has the highest rates of HIV infection in England and Wales with six in every 1,000 known to be positive. In Southwark, more than 35 per cent of cases are among black Africans.
One in four at new clinic have STI
A quarter of patients screened at a pioneering south London
GUM clinic have a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Brixton’s 347 clinic, which opened six months ago, offers on-the-spot diagnoses and treatment. David Lewis, a GU consultant said the figures were high considering many men came in without symptoms. “It’s a sign a lot of unsafe sex is going on and raises concerns that there may well be a rise in cases of HIV,” he added.
Oral sex ‘has a small
but real risk of HIV’
The risk of contracting HIV through oral sex is low, according to the UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA), but now accounts for around three per cent of new infections in this country. The agency looked at 688 HIV
diagnoses in the records of gay men between 2001 and 2003. But patients were not asked about ejaculation in the mouth, or whether there were small cuts or abrasions in the mouth, which can increase transmission risk.
Man alleged to have
infected 100 women
An Italian man is being questioned by Scottish police over claims he has infected over 100 women with HIV. A former
lover lodged a complaint after testing HIV positive. Detectives are now tracking his movements over the past two years, and have alerted police in Italy. The woman claims the man boasted of “scores” of conquests but kept his medical condition secret. He appeared in Edinburgh Sheriff Court charged with assault and was freed on bail.
Call to scrap VAT on condoms
Government advisers want to scrap tax on over-the-counter contraceptives to cut unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
In its annual report, the Independent Advisory Group for Sexual Health and HIV said contraception saved the NHS £2.5 billion per year on STIs, pregnancy and abortions. STI diagnoses are soaring and Britain still has the highest teenage
pregnancy rate in Europe.
New guidelines on HIV
and Insurance
The Association of British Insurers (ABPI) has issued new guidelines on HIV testing to members which should mean an end to questions about sexuality on insurance applications. Under the new rules, insurance companies will not be able to load
premiums for gay men.
See www.abi.org.uk
Act outlaws HIV
discrimination in Police
HIV positive people can no longer be legally excluded from key
professions like the police
and prison service.
Amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 that came into force in October outlaw
occupational exclusions by these professional groups.
A draft disability discrimination bill will extend the DDA to cover people with HIV from the moment of diagnosis is not expected to come into force until 2005.
