Signing the Halve It pledge

Signing the Halve It pledge

Newcastle North MP, Catherine McKinnell, has added her support to the campaigns of leading domestic and international HIV and AIDS charities on World AIDS Day, which has been held on 1st December each year since 1988.

The MP – who is an active member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on HIV/AIDS – has joined forces with the Halve It coalition to sign the ‘Halve It’ pledge. The pledge calls for HIV testing services to be expanded in the UK, with the aim of halving the proportion of people diagnosed late with HIV, and to halve the proportion living undiagnosed with HIV, by 2015.

 Around 100,000 people are estimated to be living with HIV in Britain – but 24% of those with HIV or AIDS don’t know they have the condition, and are therefore far more likely to pass it on. And the sooner HIV is diagnosed, the sooner appropriate care can begin – with someone diagnosed and given prompt access to effective treatment at the age of 35 now having an average life expectancy of 72.  However, 42% of those who are diagnosed are diagnosed late.

 And Catherine is also backing the call of the STOPAIDS campaign for the UK to renew its international leadership in the push to end the global AIDS epidemic by 2030.

 Much progress has been made on this issue in recent years, with 13 million people now accessing HIV treatment – up from just 400,000 in 2003. 10 million of these people are in low and middle income countries, and AIDS-related deaths across the world fell to 1.5million in 2013, from a peak of 2.2million in the mid-2000s.

 However, significant challenges remain – with 16 million people still unable to access anti-retroviral treatment, and just 3 in 10 children accessing the treatment they need.

Catherine backs the STOPAIDS campaign

Catherine backs the STOPAIDS campaign

Catherine said:

‘Expanding routine testing services is vital if we are to properly tackle HIV in the UK. We know that an early diagnosis can lead to people with HIV leading relatively normal, long lives – and in fact it saves the NHS significant funds in the long-term. Crucially, the earlier a person is diagnosed the more chance we have of reducing new infections.

 ‘Yet, I know from a recent visit to Body Positive North East that getting an HIV test isn’t always that simple – even when people are displaying the symptoms – and we therefore really need a culture change on this issue.

‘Of course HIV and AIDS remains a serious global problem on which the UK has led the way, and British funding is helping to save a life every three minutes with our contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

 ‘But 16 million people – or 1 in 3 affected children – are still unable to access the treatment they need, and shockingly AIDS is the leading cause of death amongst women of child-bearing age.

 ‘We cannot afford to let up on this issue, and I am therefore backing calls for the UK to continue to lead the international fight against HIV and AIDS.’

 

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