My latest column for the Ham & High to mark  National HIV Testing Week (10 – 16 February 2025): 

Last week, I attended a drop-in event in Parliament to raise awareness of National HIV Testing Week (February 10 to February 16).

During the event, I spoke to the Terrence Higgins Trust about their crucial work campaigning for good sexual health services, particularly for HIV testing and patient support. For 14 years, Conservative governments cut funding to our NHS, which included sexual health clinics, and failed to publish a long-term plan to help prevent and treat sexually transmitted infections.

According to government data, Haringey has one of the highest HIV rates in England, with a rate of 6.9 per 1,000 people aged 15 to 59. Testing is the only way to know your status and it helps you stay in control of your health. I’m proud that this Labour government is committed to ending new HIV cases in England by 2030, with a new HIV Action Plan to be published in the summer of 2025, backed by £1.5 million in government funding.

What’s more, earlier this month, Sir Keir Starmer was the first serving British Prime Minister and serving G7 leader to take a public HIV test on camera. The blood test is free, quick and simple. Once diagnosed, people living with HIV can access free, effective treatment which means they can have a normal life expectancy and can’t pass on the virus. Over 20,000 self-testing and self-sampling kits will be made available. Anyone in England can order a free and confidential HIV test from freetesting.hiv to do at home. You can also find out more information about HIV on the NHS website. The move supports the Government’s Plan for Change by ensuring people can get timely access to diagnostics and care if they need it.

As many of you may know, I’m a big advocate for regular testing for your health and wellbeing and I am also so proud that the NHS has been providing Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) since 2020 to prevent new transmissions of HIV. This ground-breaking medication is a game-changer in helping the Government meet its goal to end new HIV cases by 2030.

I would like to end by thanking all the hard-working and dedicated sexual health clinicians in Hornsey and Friern Barnet and organisations such as the Terrence Higgins Trust for raising awareness on the importance of HIV testing.

Read my full article online here.