It's the Positive Nation sex issue!
Every issue should be, of course. You do a magazine about HIV, you talk about sex. But this issue has a particular focus on who's Doing It and especially who's taking risks Doing It, whether on the web, on chems, or in pos-neg relationships. Just 'cos we talk about real sex, not just saleable fantasy, we hope we don't leave out what makes it great - the connection, the wildness and, yes, even (a bit of) risk. Enjoy.
The latest HIV diagnosis figures, smuggled out with little fanfare on 28 February, tell one simple story. Once late reports trickle in, around 4,200 heterosexuals - three times as many as in 1999 - will have tested positive. Last year alone the rate jumped 40 per cent. 80 per cent of them were Africans.
This has now become a major right-wing fright issue. "It's not terrorists we're afraid of, it's their diseases" squealed the Sun, accompanied by calls for the compulsory HIV testing (and presumably deportation) of asylum seekers.
Well, it's actually illegal to turn away asylum seekers on health grounds. In reality, there is still - fortunately - little 'mass migration' of HIV from Africans into the rest of the population. The dreaded 'third generation' figures - heterosexual infections where both people's HIV was caught in the UK - have only gone up from 40 a year during the 90s to about 60 in the last three years.
Not all people with HIV represent a public health menace.
The UK has seen big increases in sexually-transmitted infections. However, there are reasons why a rise in heterosexual STIs need not foreshadow a rise in heterosexual HIV. HIV is not very infectious. You can catch chlamydia quite easily the first time you have sex, but unless you are very unlucky - or live in a high prevalence country - you often have to, er, go it some to get HIV.
But relying on this may be complacent. The DoH's 'sex lottery' campaign feels pretty low-key, restricted to a few radio and TV ads and lots of soggy beermats.
This month, the gay men's HIV prevention group CHAPS holds its sixth national conference. There is much to be discussed (a 20 per cent rise in the gay infection rate, for a start.) But isn't it about time there was a heterosexual equivalent? GUYS and DOLLS, anyone?
Help! The evil commissioners are coming to chop off our budgets!
That seems to be the reaction of a lot of the HIV sector to the NHS reforms. This is why the merger between George House Trust and Body Positive North West in Manchester is good news. When six Manchester health authorities set out their own commissioning plan for HIV three years ago, the clear implication was that one org would Have to Go.
But then the six authorities were replaced with 14 Primary Care Trusts. Instant funding chaos, back to square one.
GHT and BPNW decided that if the commissioners couldn't get their act together, they would. They formed the Greater Manchester HIV Partnership with three other orgs. It decided on the BPNW/GHT merger, set out service plans, and told the Commissioners: "Right. This is what we need. Fund that."
Ian Jeffery of BPNW says: "The commissioners were ecstatic that in three months we did what they failed to do in three years. We've told them what to spend their money on, and this has been led by our service users' needs."
Once HIV organisations stop fighting like cats in a bag, work in partnership, and each contribute the particular things they happen to do best, they can give the orders. And keep the commissioners and their shears at bay.
