Rise in HIV cases prompts new NICE guidance

New National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance has been published in a bid to increase HIV testing, after figures revealed a rise in the number of new infections.

Statistics from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show that 3,780 people were diagnosed with the virus in 2010, up from 1,950 in 2001.

The group with the highest risk of becoming infected is men who have sex with men, with new diagnoses in this group increasing by 70 per cent in the past ten years, reaching 3,080 cases in 2010.

To address this issue, NICE has published two new pieces of guidance which recommend a greater focus on testing in key risk groups: homosexual males and those in black African communities.

Professor Mike Kelly, director of the NICE Centre for Public Health Excellence, said: "This new guidance … aims to normalise HIV testing by ensuring it is routinely offered to all people who live in an area where there is a high prevalence of HIV."

The HPA's head of HIV surveillance Dr Valerie Delpech said HIV tests should be routinely offered to all hospital admissions in areas where the prevalence of HIV exceeds two per 1,000 among 15 to 59-year-olds.