Women are taking over HIV matters
Heterosexuals need to be HIV tested
Call for more HIV awareness campaigns
National condom week 2009
30/06/09
Women are taking over HIV matters
HIV positive women are joining together to make their voice heard, in a bid to prove that there are not the weakest links when it comes to responding to HIV matters, a charity spokesperson has warned.
Silvia Petretti, of Positively Women, a London-based HIV support centre for HIV positive women in the UK, said: “We are not only trying to reach out to each other and give each other support, but we are trying to be more visible and heard in the world. We want our voices to be loud. There are some women of course, who are still experiencing a lot of isolation but I think that the UK, especially compared to most European countries, is doing well in developing the influence and visibility of women with HIV.”
Ms Petretti said organisations from all over the UK, such as their own and PozFem UK were determined to make a mark by ‘empowering’ affected women. She added: “I wouldn’t define women’s response to HIV as weaker. …The national network of women living with HIV in the UK show that women in the UK are attempting to break out of the stigma that surrounds HIV.”
However, an anonymous HIV positive woman, who moved from London to a refuge centre in Dorset, said she believes that both men and women cannot escape from dealing with consequences of living with the virus. “Personally I don’t think women react differently to HIV because they all have to face the stigma just like men who are positive,” she says.
23/06/09
Heterosexuals need to be HIV tested
A HIV positive gay man is urging heterosexual people to come forward and be tested for HIV before the virus starts damaging their immune system.
“When you speak to most heterosexual people, they do not think that HIV is a concern. I think that many people, especially young people who are not gay or not black, or not African, so they are straight and white, they do not think that HIV would affect them,” said Andy Hilton, a 48-year-old HIV positive from the North West of England.
According to the Health Protection Agency’s latest figures, the number of heterosexuals diagnosed who were infected within the UK, is the highest ever in seven years. This means that at 1,090 the figure has more than doubled since data collection started in 2002.
James Chalmers, a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Law, who wrote ‘Legal Responses to HIV and AIDS’, said: “In public’s health terms most transmissions of HIV, from what we know is not from people who know that they are HIV positive and taking risk. It’s from people who don’t know they have HIV at all. That’s why the whole public health has problems.
“So we need to encourage people to come forward for testing at the various health’s stage because the more people know they are HIV positive, the more the vast majority will take any possible steps to avoid putting other people at risk.”
Listen to Andy’s message to young people
16/06/09
Call for more HIV awareness campaigns
A Poole councillor is urging the government to do something to increase HIV awareness, especially in Dorset where there is a large number of people infected by this blood-borne infection.
Councillor Chris Bulteel of the Borough of Poole, said: “I think there should be a campaign [about HIV] and the government should put more money into it because if they don’t, then the disease would just spread around and it would be disastrous. So we need to be more careful that we make people aware of the dangers.”
According to a spokesperson of the Dorset HIV leading organisation, Body Positive, Bournemouth has the fourth highest prevalence of HIV in the UK outside of London.
Cllr Bulteel, added that he does not believe the government is doing enough to reduce the increase of the number of people infected by HIV, particularly in the South of England where the prevalence is high. “I think people should be concerned [because] it’s quite alarming,” he said.
However, Councillor Brian Leverett, also of Poole Town, insisted that the situation is still under control. He said: “Any health problem is a matter of serious concern but it must be dealt with by the proper health authority which is the primary care trust. And I have every confidence that the primary care trust is doing everything practical to reduce the level of this infection the same as it is with every other serious disease.”
09/06/09
National Condom Week 2009
A charity spokesperson has warned that to prevent the HIV/AIDS disease from spreading across the country, the 16 to 25-year-old demographic should have access to condoms free of charge as they are “the most sexually active.”
The news comes following the yearly National Condom Week campaign, which lasted from May 18 to May 24 in a bid to encourage ‘safer safe’.
Richard Erven, 61, of the Positive Place Dorset, said: “Any sexual transmitted disease should be fought and people should have the opportunity not to contract any sexually transmitted disease, particularly HIV because that’s the disease that could actually kill you.
“I think condoms should be made available free of charge to anyone, particularly to sixteen to twenty-five year-old because they’re the most sexually active. …And we know from recent statistics that, that’s also the age group that are more at risk of contracting HIV. So I think anything like this to promote the use of condom and makes them available is only to be commanded.
Mr Erven insisted that such campaigns are “extremely important” because there seem to be evidence of a great need among the young generation throughout the UK.
Meanwhile, people from all walks of life expressed their different views on the use of condom in Winton High Street, Bournemouth.
For more details play the video below.