'Backward step' as HIV cases surge

7:00pm Thursday 19th June 2008

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SEXUAL health experts in Dorset are worried about a recent huge rise in the number of people being diagnosed with HIV/Aids.

The genito-urinary medicine department at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital received 25 new referrals of HIV-positive patients in just two months.

"We've taken a complete backward step as far as sexual health is concerned."

Barbara Heffernan

"We would normally expect to see three a month at the most," said Dr Cordelia Chapman, GUM consultant at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Although some of the new patients have transferred from other areas, Dr Chapman said several had been diagnosed late because the underlying cause of their illness had been missed by other health processionals.

She has seen patients with a rare cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma and a type of pneumonia seen in people with a damaged immune system.

A sudden surge in these diseases among American homosexual men in the early 1980s first led to Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) being identified.

"It's almost going back to the old days," said Dr Chapman. "There are also people diagnosed who have had negative HIV tests in the last six months to a year, which is soul-destroying."

The unit now has 475 HIV-positive patients in regular care, compared with 140 six years ago.

Barbara Heffernan, chief executive of Body Positive Dorset, warned: "People have got HIV because they were having unprotected sex. If they have had it for a long time, we could end up with another 75 people who don't know they've got it.

"We've taken a complete backward step as far as sexual health is concerned. We did go through a stage in the 1980s when people were more aware and more responsible about what could happen to them.

"There are GPs who have little experience about HIV, so when people are presenting with constant illnesses, they are not necessarily being recommended to have a test. A lot of people are getting missed because there is so little publicity now.

"We've got this group of people who think it's not going to happen to them - and it is happening to them. The Department of Health knows what's going on, but maybe it doesn't want to worry people."

Mrs Heffernan called for a campaign to raise awareness and more funding for prevention, pointing out that HIV drugs can cost £20,000-25,000 a year for each patient.

She also wants all people who are HIV-positive to be given free condoms. At the moment, the charity only receives 100 a month from the primary care trust.

There has also been a big rise in local cases of syphilis, with 47 new cases identified at the GUM department last year. It is thought that many sufferers do not realise they remain infectious for two years - or that the disease can be spread through oral sex.

Body Positive is now giving more than 50 free counselling sessions a month to clients.