Government announces HIV health funding

The government has this week announced that one million pounds will be invested in attempting to prevent the rising incidence of HIV among the gay and African communities in the UK.

Funds will used by the African HIV Policy Network and Terrence Higgins Trust to reduce the transmission of HIV in high-risk groups.

The Department of Health notes that this money will be added to existing funding of 130 million pounds that is being investing in the modernisation of sexual health clinics and other services and 1.7 million pounds already targeted at high-risk groups.

Carline Flint, public health minister, said: “Thanks to new antiretroviral therapies, health outcomes for people with HIV have improved dramatically. However, HIV is still a live threatening illness for which there is no cure and new infections continue to take place in this country.”

She added that two thirds of all new cases of HIV reported in 2005 were in the black and ethnic minority communities and that the aim was to deal with increasing infection rates by pro-actively targeting these groups.

The government established the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV in March 2003 to provide opinions from health professionals involved in the sexual health sector.