News

One of third of people infected with HIV in England were unaware of their infection, said the government’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Liam Donaldson this week, writes Haroon Ashraf.

The CMO’s annual report presented a snapshot of the nation’s health and targeted pressing health issues that could be improved by sustained action.

Half of gay men with HIV have been infected for an average of six years, Donaldson said in the report State of the Public Health.

“A relatively large proportion of people are being diagnosed late in the course of their HIV disease leading to avoidable illness and death, and creating opportunities for the disease to spread more widely within the population,” he said.

The government is concerned that the number of new HIV cases has increased by 55 per cent from 2000 to 2002.

Opportunities are not been taken to test people in genitourinary medicine clinics, said the report. All people attending a genitor-urinary clinic for the first time should be offered an HIV test, it said.

The report recommendations include strengthening HIV prevention work for communities most at risk of HIV.

In 2002, 29,044 people in England were living with HIV – the latest available data -- while in 2003, 5,486 people were diagnosed with HIV.

This year’s report has focused on smoking, blood transfusion, academic medicine, and earlier detection of HIV infection