Postive Nation:Uk News March 08

ON THE SIDE

Brighton’s Open Door to close
Brighton’s Open Door HIV centre will be forced to close later this year following withdrawal of funding by the Church of England Diocese of Chichester. Over 250 HIV positive service users of the well respected KempTown based agency, which has existed since 1990, will now have no alternative means of support. Brighton Green Party spokesman Bill Randell, said: “These closures follow on the heels of government cuts that saw the annual HIV and AIDS budget for the city cut by more than £100,000 a year.” The closure of Open Door will leave few remaining services specifically for HIV positive people in Brighton. The city has a high and growing population of HIV positive residents who will now have less support in the future.

‘Half of under 25s don’t use condoms’ - NAT survey
A survey by the National Aids Trust (NAT) to coincide with National Condom Week this May revealed that nearly half of all under 25s do not use condoms with new sexual partners. And NAT is now asking for condom ads on TV and radio before the 9pm watershed as well as compulsory condom awareness in school curricula. The MORI survey of over 1,900 young people found that 49 per cent don’t always use a condom with new sexual partners and, 24 per cent said they would stop using condoms once they had been tested for HIV and other STIs and only 17 per cent said they would always use a condom. Deborah Jack, NAT chief executive, said: “The British public need a wake-up call on condom use. Too many people don’t know the basic facts on how condoms prevent a sexually transmitted infection such as HIV. Too many people are inconsistent in how they use condoms and too many people give up on condoms in a relationship without a health check-up, thus possibly harming their health or that of their sexual partner.”

i-Base information services cut
Southwark based HIV treatments information charity HIV i-Base is facing a major financial crisis following the withdrawal of £50,000 in grants by the London Health Commissioners. The commissioners have withdrawn public funding to the charity for its valued publications, treatments workshops, advocacy training and phoneline support. HIV positive activists in the capital have launched a campaign to save the charity. The move by the health commissioners is part of a package of funding cuts in HIV information services which has seen a cut of 30 per cent across the board and will also affect NAM and THT. Whilst these cuts are happening the capital is seeing a record rise in numbers of HIV positive people. Protesters to the cuts are asked to email Hong.Tan@londonscg.nhs.uk and copy Simon.Collins@i-Base.org.uk into the correspondence.

99 per cent of children born uninfected
Rates of mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in the UK have dropped from over 20 per cent in the mid 1990s to under 2
per cent over the last 10 years and to just 1.2 per cent in 2006. All pregnant women in Britain and Ireland are now offered an HIV test and acceptance rates are over 90 per cent. If diagnosed, the mums now take a combination of antiretroviral (ART) drugs and are offered an elective caesarean section for the birth of their babies. But with effective treatments many can now have a safe natural delivery. Claire Townsend, research fellow in Child Health at University College London, who was the lead author of the study into over 5,100 positive pregnant women, said: “Our findings are greatly encouraging. They demonstrate that if women are
tested for HIV early enough in pregnancy for ART to be initiated,
the risk of infection to their baby is very low indeed.”

Drug resistant TB on rise in UK
There were over 8,500 new TB cases last year and drug resistant tuberculosis is on the rise in Britain, latest figures reveal. The government’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) found the proportion of TB cases resistant to first line drugs rose from 5.6 to 7.9 per cent between 1998 and 2005. And the number of people infected with drug resistant TB has gone up from 170 in 1998 to 336 in 2005. Many of these patients are from sub Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent, and many now live in poorer boroughs of inner London such as Brent and Newham, the HPA said. There have also been outbreaks of drug resistant TB in UK prisons and among drug users. Professor Stephen Spiro, of the British Lung Foundation, said: “GPs and clinicians, particularly those based in London, must be vigilant and make sure that people with symptoms suggestive of TB are referred promptly for further investigation to a TB clinic or for an X ray and that people with the disease are offered support to make sure they complete their treatment.”

Farewell Martin Flynn
Positive Nation’s News Editor Martin Flynn leaves us this month to take up a one year contract as Information Coordinator at the International Aids Society (IAS), based in Geneva. IAS organises all the major AIDS conferences, including the International AIDS Conference AIDS2008 to be held in Mexico City this August. IAS has over 12,000 members around the world, many leading HIV physicians. Positive Nation would like to wish Martin all the best in his new role.

Asylum seekers offered free healthcare in Wales & Scotland, but not in England
Failed asylum seekers will be offered free treatment and care in Wales and Scotland, but not in England, it became clear last month. The Department of Health (DH) is seeking to further restrict access to healthcare for asylum seekers in England, where treatments for most infectious diseases, with the exception of HIV treatments, remain free to all. Welsh Health Minister Edwina Hart said her decision was the right one and the mark of a civilised society. And in Scotland, those who have applied for asylum or are still within the asylum process are entitled to free NHS treatments The loss of a test case by the DH at the High Court in London last month means that asylum seekers in England will still receive treatments for the time being. But the DH is appealing against this judgement. HIV groups around the country are reporting that HIV positive asylum seekers are still being pursued by NHS debt collectors.

�Bareback gay HIV porn scandal� � Newsnight
BBC’s Newsnight has revealed a scandal in the UK porn industry where condoms are not being used for sex acts by gay ‘actors’.
Three films have been withdrawn following the Newsnight investigation into the health risks of bareback
gay porn, where men have unprotected anal intercourse. The move comes as 4 of the British ‘actors’ in the films were diagnosed HIV positive soon after shooting the porn videos. There has been an explosion in the production of bareback gay porn over the last few years, Newsnight reported, and they now make up to 60 per cent of the gay market. Despite campaigns by HIV health promoters, most
specialist gay sex shops across Britain still stock gay bareback pornography.

‘Side effects should be reported’
A campaign has been launched to get members of the public to report any side effects they experience after taking medicines. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) wants pharmacists to promote and make better use of the ‘Yellow Card’ reporting scheme. The Yellow Card scheme was set up in 1964 after the Thalidomide tragedy. Most people taking HIV antiretroviral drugs suffer drug side effects, both short and long term, but few patients and clinics report side effects as they should. Research into HIV drugs consistently underestimates the effects of side effects on patients living with HIV and the new MHRA campaign might in future present a more realistic picture. A spokesman for the National Pharmacy Association said: “We wholeheartedly support this and are encouraging our members to promote the scheme.”