More than 3,000 gay men were diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 2010, the highest ever annual figure. A report from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) says one in 20 gay men are now infected with HIV nationally, a statistic which rises to one in 11 in London. An estimated 91,500 people in the UK were living with the disease in 2010, up on the 86,500 living with the condition in 2009. Of the 6,660 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2010, half came forward for testing after a time when treatment should ideally have started. HPA says heterosexual men remain the most likely group to be diagnosed late, at 63 per cent compared with 39 per cent of gay men and 58 per cent of heterosexual women. The data also showed that one in five people visiting a sexually-transmitted infection clinic in 2010 did not accept an HIV test. The HPA is recommending that, in areas where prevalence of HIV is high, testing should be offered in places where it is not currently the norm. It says testing should be offered to all people signing up with a GP and those admitted to hospital, but only with the patient's permission
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 29th November 2011 - 3:11pm