The Trust has been supporting a campaign this week to encourage higher-risk individuals to test for HIV in a visit to a gay venue in the city.

Sexual health and HIV nurses from University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) visited the Core Club nightclub in the city centre on Friday night to raise awareness of testing week which runs from 22 – 30 November.

The initiative is being promoted across England and is aimed in particular at gay men and African people who are at a higher risk of catching the virus.

UHB is hoping to reach the people in these groups who don’t normally test, or don’t test often enough.

Trained nurses were able to offer advice about sexual health and encouraged gay club-goers to get tested at a number of clinics across the city.

UHB is responsible for the sexual health of around 75 per cent of Birmingham’s population with clinics that include a drop-in centre at Boots and in Saint Martin’s Church in Birmingham city centre, in addition to the Whittall Street Clinic, the second busiest GUM/sexual health clinic in the UK.

Individuals are welcome to attend the clinics for a free and confidential rapid HIV test.

Dr Kaveh Manavi, Head of the HIV Service at UHB, said: “It is vital that those most at risk of contracting HIV get tested earlier and more frequently.

“We are supporting this awareness campaign and hope to welcome more patients into our clinics for HIV testing for their peace of mind.

“Being diagnosed with HIV at an earlier stage of infection is associated with a significantly better clinical outcome.”

In particular, HIV Testing Week aims to:

• Increase the numbers of gay men and African people taking an HIV test.
• Raise awareness in the gay and African communities of the importance of testing.
• Increase the number of opportunities to take a test at clinics and in the community.

Achieving these goals will help to reduce the number of people who are diagnosed late with HIV as an early HIV diagnosis is easier to manage and reduces the risk of it being passed on to other people.

The awareness week runs from 22 – 30 November.  It is the third year for the promotional campaign and will run in the lead-up to World AIDS Day next week on 1 December.