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One of the opening speakers at the African Men's seminar was Neil McDonald
from the Public Health Laboratory Service. He started by reminding the
audience that although heterosexual HIV diagnoses now exceed those of
gay men, most infections are still acquired abroad - mainly in Africa.
But exactly who those Africans are is changing. The largest newly-diagnosed
ethnic group in the UK since 1999 has been from west Africa - Nigerians.
This is because, though the HIV prevalence in Nigeria is still "only"
one in 20, the country's large population means that 37 million of its
inhabitants now have HIV. There are a large number of Nigerians in the
UK and inevitably many of them are testing positive.
Grace Kintu, organiser of the seminar; Photo: David Smith
African men are still not getting tested until they are ill. 86 per cent who diagnose are classed as 'late presenters'; African men have an average CD4 count of 162 on diagnosis - well below the Aids-defining limit of 200 (African women have an average of 234 at diagnosis).
This situation has not changed at all between 1984 and 2000 - proportionately, the same number of Africans are still presenting at or near
