Blood Test Patients To Be Checked For HIV

A hospital in south London has become the first in the UK to routinely check whether A&E patients who need blood tests have the HIV virus.

Doctors at St Thomas' say the screening of tens of thousands of people every year could pick up 150 cases of people who are HIV positive, but do not yet know it.

HIV may no longer be seen as the public health threat it was in the 1980s, but it has not gone away.

On the south London streets served by St Thomas', one in every 100 people has the virus.

So now the NHS Trust is introducing routine testing for HIV for anyone coming to A&E who needs a blood test.

Doctors say early diagnosis will give patients a better chance of a healthy life - and stop them spreading the virus further.

Dr Nick Larbalestier, the clinical lead for HIV at Guy's and St Thomas’, told Sky News: "It makes a big difference in terms of long-term response.

"If you can diagnose someone before damage is done to the immune system you can prevent them getting sick.

"Treatment also dramatically reduces the chance of onward transmission. So there is a big public health benefit."

Last year 68,000 patients received blood tests at St Thomas' casualty department.

To give them all the extra HIV test would cost some £340,000.

But the lifetime cost of treating just one individual living with HIV is around £300,000.

Doctors say if each year they can stop a single patient passing the virus to one other person the scheme will almost pay for itself.

They predict it is not just the odd extra case of HIV they will pick up every year - but two or three every week.

That is because HIV infection rates in Southwark and Lambeth are three times the national average - and, crucially, of those who have the virus, typically a quarter are completely unaware they are HIV positive.

This means they are not being given antiretroviral drugs and could also be spreading it further, unwittingly, through sex or drug use.

Across the UK, an estimated 107,800 people are living with HIV.

Other towns and cities with high prevalence include Brighton, Manchester, Luton and Slough.

So far only St Thomas' has begun wider public screening in this way.