Statistics from the UK’s Health Security Agency have been released as part of National HIV Testing Week, which starts today.
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Charity Nyirenda (left) and Allan Batcock talk about their experiences with HIV to encourage people to get tested and fight stigma (Photo: Terrence Higgins Trust / Courtesy)
For the first time in a decade, the number of new HIV diagnoses among heterosexual men is higher than among gay and bisexual men, new figures show.
By 2020, half (50%) of all new HIV infections in England will be heterosexual (50%), compared with 45% of gay and bisexual men.
The statistics from the UK Health Security Agency have been released as part of National HIV Testing Week, which starts today.
Allan Batcock, a straight man who was diagnosed with HIV around 12 years ago, spoke exclusively to Metro.co.uk with the aim of fighting the stigma around the virus.
‘I had just entered into a new relationship after getting divorced, and before that I had being going out and, you know, having a bit of fun as I was single again,’ the 45-year-old said.
‘I went for an STI check – just an MOT kind of thing, not because I thought I was at risk or something was wrong, but I felt like I should get it done.
‘And that was how it got picked up. The consultant was horrific, I just remember her telling me, “There’s no easy way of saying this, but you’re HIV positive.”
‘And I crashed, quite simply.’
Allan Batcock, a straight man, was diagnosed with HIV around 12 years ago (Picture: Supplied)
At the time of Allan’s diagnosis – as a heterosexual man in his 30s – he said he had ‘next to no education’ about HIV, and said all he could think about was the memorable tombstone leaflet from the 1980s which read: ‘AIDS: Don’t die of ignorance.’
‘I [previously] just thought, this doesn’t affect me. It only affects gay and African people,’ Allan, from Cheshire, explained.
‘So when I was diagnosed, I just thought, “I am going to die.”‘
When Allan was diagnosed, he said it was at a time when he didn’t receive treatment until his condition became much closer to AIDS – which was around two years later.
He said: ‘Everything has progressed so far since then you now start treatment the week of your diagnosis. It stops it before the virus has any chance to affect the body.
‘HIV is no longer a death sentence, it’s a treatable condition. There are far worse things you could get.’
Allan, pictured with wife Marie, said he ‘thought he was going to die’ after his diagnosis due to the stigma – but of course, was proved wrong (Picture: Supplied)
What is HIV? According to the NHS, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by HIV. While AIDS cannot be transmitted from one person to another, the HIV virus can. HIV is usually transmitted through the body fluids of an infected person, and does not survive outside the body for long. The most common way of catching it in the UK is through sex without a condom, but it can also be transmitted through injecting equipment, breastfeeding or during pregnancy. Antiretroviral medicines are used to treat HIV right away and stop AIDS developing. If you have HIV, have been taking effective treatment and your viral load has been undetectable for six months or more, it means you cannot pass the virus on through sex. This is called undetectable=untransmittable (U=U). Medication called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be taken to prevent or reduce the transmission of HIV.
The first ever drop in new HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men was in 2014, and has continued every year since.
Experts believe this fall is a result of the growing availability of HIV prevention pill PrEP and targeted promotion of routine HIV testing over the last decade.
Organisations like sexual health and HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust hope to replicate this across the wider population, by raising awareness among heterosexual as well as homosexual people.
Charity Nyirenda, 49, was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 after finding HIV treatment in the bedside drawer of her then-boyfriend.
The Londoner told Metro.co.uk: ‘I never, ever thought the result would come back positive but it did. He must not have been taking his medication correctly or regularly enough as he wouldn’t have been able to pass on HIV to me if that was the case.
‘But I’m glad I found them as would never have tested otherwise, and had never tested before. I was devastated at the time, but I had counselling and learned a HIV diagnosis wasn’t anywhere near the death sentence I thought it was.
Charity Nyirenda, 49, was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 (Picture: Terrence Higgins Trust)
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