Expanding HIV testing to A&E
Working closely with our partners at St. Thomas’ Hospital, we are pleased to be able to offer an HIV test to every patient admitted to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department who are aged 16 or over.
You may have heard about this initiative in the national news recently. As of 20 July, St. Thomas’ Hospital has become the first UK hospital to test patients attending A&E for HIV in this way. Unless patients ‘opt-out’, they will automatically have their blood tested for HIV by Viapath’s Infection Sciences Department at the hospital.
Currently, there are around 107,000 people living in the UK with HIV, with just under a quarter unaware that they are infected. Our local South London communities have the highest prevalence of HIV in the UK with 1 in 100 residents currently infected.
HIV is a very manageable condition, with most people going on to live healthy and normal lives, but late diagnosis of the infection reduces the patient’s life expectancy and increases the risk of onward transmission.
Identifying the undiagnosed
During 2014, approximately 68,000 patients attending A&E at St. Thomas’ had a blood test. It is anticipated that screening patients in this way will identify around 150 additional cases per year, allowing for earlier treatment intervention.
The lifetime cost of treating an individual living with HIV is estimated to be around £300,000, it is hoped that this initiative will not only save patient lives but also reduce the financial burden on the NHS by reducing transmission. Currently, Viapath is able to offer HIV blood tests for less than £5 each.
This programme will be evaluated for effectiveness after six months, but our Infection Sciences team welcome this expanded approach to HIV testing: “I think this initiative is excellent in terms of ‘normalising’ HIV testing and potentially reducing the number of patients who are undiagnosed or receive late diagnosis” said Dr Siobhan O’Shea, Lead Clinical Scientist in Infection Sciences.
Dr Eithne MacMahon, Clinical Lead in Infection Sciences, stated: “HIV testing and treatment is life saving for those individuals with undiagnosed infection and their partners.”
The extended working day and weekend service provided by Infection Sciences will enable the team to support this very important initiative which has every chance of success.
