Too few women being checked for HIV, ‘despite them making up substantial new diagnoses’

Leading charities have warned that healthcare providers are not checking enough women for HIV, even though they now make up substantial amounts of new diagnoses.

Chamut Kifetew of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said women are often overlooked by healthcare professionals, adding “In sexual health clinics, women are least likely to be offered a HIV test. Especially women from ethnic minority backgrounds. Some providers think it is not what the woman is coming to see them for. They think the woman should be the one to ask.

“While the woman might think if their doctor or healthcare professional wanted them to do a test, they would ask them to. It is important we rethink this and bring women to the forefront in healthcare professionals’ minds.”

Ms Kifetew, who runs England’s national HIV prevention programme, warned of a postcode lottery among services that provide testing.

She said healthcare services were aware of what they should be doing, but this needs to be “enforced”, adding that sexual health clinics often assume women are there to access contraception or a chlamydia test rather than to be screened for HIV.

A person with the virus who gets a late diagnosis as an eight times increased risk of death in comparison to those who are diagnosed at an earlier stage. There are currently around 5,900 people living with undiagnosed HIV in England, meaning they may be unknowingly passing the virus onto others.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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