Rising HIV 'must top public health agenda'

Rates of HIV could soar if ministers continue to let the disease slide down the agenda, an Aids charity will warn the Government next month.

In a report to be released to coincide with the Labour Party conference, the Terrence Higgins Trust says that sexual infections are on the increase and that new cases of HIV are up by two thirds since 1997.

The charity is concerned that HIV has slipped down the Department of Health's agenda over the past few years and wants the new Public Health minister, Hazel Blears who replaced Yvette Cooper, to show greater commitment to tackling the problem. Lisa Power, policy head at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "It is extremely important that the Government reprioritises sexual health and HIV. We're facing a serious epidemic of sexual ill health.

"You have to keep working on these issues. If you deprioritise you immediately see a rise in infections, and that is what we have seen."

The trust said a survey of specialist HIV and sexual health doctors found that 57 per cent believed their ability to provide services had deteriorated since Labour began its modernisation of the NHS. The 1992-97 Conservative government put HIV and Aids at the top of its health agenda. But under Labour, the charities say, HIV has not received the same attention.The report says this was probably not the intention, but urgent steps are now needed.

Britain has an estimated 34,000 HIV-positive people, about a third of whom are unaware they have the disease. The Public Health Laboratory Service predicts that by 2005 the number of people living with HIV in this country will have increased by 45 per cent.

"The HIV epidemic continues to grow, despite hard work to prevent further infections among the most affected communities. In 2001 there were more new diagnoses than in any year since records began. In 1999, heterosexually acquired infections overtook those acquired through sex between men, and have continued to increase," the report says.

The report says there have been fears from patients with HIV that many doctors have issues of confidentiality and may be unaware of the latest available treatments. The trust urged ministers to issue guidelines to GPs on treating people with HIV. The Department of Health was unavailable for comment yesterday.