Opinion  

In the time it takes to read an issue of Independent Nurse, another person in the UK will have been diagnosed with HIV. Last November, the Health Protection Agency released figures showing that, in 2005, 7,450 people were diagnosed with HIV – roughly one every 70 minutes. Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) estimates there are now 70,000 people living with HIV in the UK. What’s more, about a third don’t know they have the virus.

The UK has the worst sexual health in Western Europe, and epidemics of STIs like chlamydia continue to spread. The government has taken some positive steps to address this: sexual health was one of the 2006 NHS priorities; the chlamydia screening programme is expanding, and PCTs in England received the first part of the £300 million of sexual health money allocated through Choosing Health.

Low levels of public awareness

Despite this, the UK still lags behind many other countries in tackling our epidemic. Public awareness of HIV and the way it is transmitted is lower now than in the 1980s, even though the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV has risen every year since the first UK case was diagnosed over 25 years ago.

The government recently announced an extra £1 million investment for HIV prevention work with gay men and Africans, the two groups most affected by HIV in the UK, and launched the first wave of its condom campaign. But more investment and greater focus is needed as HIV prevention work is slipping to the bottom of local priorities.

Sexual health work is also suffering. A recent report showed only 30 of 191 PCTs surveyed had spent this year’s allocation of the Choosing Health money on sexual health. The rest spent the money on plugging existing deficits.

Diagnosing more people earlier is key to tackling the HIV and STI epidemics. We need investment to increase awareness, and ensure local services provide testing and treatment at times that suit those in need. To do this we must modernise sexual health services and increase HIV prevention programmes.

Nurse-led community services can help

Nurse-led, community-based clinics can deliver services that hard-to-reach clients find easy to use and cost less than traditional GUM clinics. Non-complex STIs can be diagnosed and treated at one visit. THT has been at the forefront of developing such clinics and nurses have a crucial role in the future development and delivery of these services.

We also need to improve sex education in schools. Young people consistently tell us that the sex education they receive is too little, too late and too biological. THT is campaigning to make personal social and health education (PSHE) a statutory part of the national curriculum. The support of school nurses for the delivery of PSHE will be key to achieving this.

To improve sexual health we need to go beyond biology and ensure that young people have access to comprehensive sex and relationships education in every school in the UK.

- Vicky Field is policy officer at the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). Established in 1982, THT was one of the first charities to set up in response to the HIV epidemic. It is now the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity and, along with its campaigning role, provides a range of services to over 50,000 people a year.

Resources

To find out more visit www.tht.org.uk. You can also join THT’s campaign to make PSHE part of the national curriculum at www.tht.org.uk/campaign.