Two major HIV organisations have produced a new series of short videos for GPs around indicator conditions for HIV. The initiative is a collaboration between HIV-charity Terrence Higgins Trust and Fast Track Cities London, a partnership of organisations tackling HIV in the capital, and comes ahead of National HIV Testing Week, which kicks off on 10 February.
GPs are a crucial part of the England’s testing infrastructure, with over 139,000 tests carried out in primary care in 2023. However, 41% of people are still diagnosed at a late stage of infection, and an estimated 4,700 people in England are living with undiagnosed HIV.
The aim of the videos is to remind GPs of indicator conditions which should act as a prompt to test a patient for HIV, to try to ensure people get diagnosed as early as possible.
Key points mentioned in the videos include when a patient has possible immunosuppression or malignancy, has experienced a few common back-to-back illnesses, has symptoms which are taking longer to resolve than expected, or has slightly abnormal FBC or LFTs. All of these can be indicators to a GP to test a patient for HIV.
Islington based GP, Dr Sam Preston, a Fast-Track Cities GP Champion, who is featured in the videos, said “HIV testing week is a great opportunity to increase testing to make sure people aren’t diagnosed late and they can get onto effective HIV treatment as soon as possible. As GPs we are seeing 100s of people in our local community every day who could be missing out on a HIV test because they don’t think they are at risk. The toolkit we’ve put together for GPs prompts them to remember to do an HIV test when this is necessary for example if the GP is worried about immunosuppression.”
The videos are in support of National HIV Testing Week. National HIV Testing Week is a campaign by Terrence Higgins Trust and commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care to promote regular HIV testing, particularly among the groups most at risk of HIV.
During the week, anyone in England can order a free HIV test to do at home, but the campaign also promotes people considering testing in whatever way they feel comfortable, such as at a sexual health service or with their GPs.
The GP-focused content will be shared by the Royal College of GPs, Integrated Care Boards and via advertising on LinkedIn.
If you want to find out more about the GP champions programme in London, please contact us at rf-tr.londonftci@nhs.net.
Find out more abou National HIV Testing week on the HIV Prevention England website www.hivpreventionengland.org.uk/gp