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LIVERPOOL
Liverpool is a growing, multi-cultural, diverse vibrant city and home to almost half a million people. On 1 December 2018, World AIDS Day, Liverpool City Council formally joined Liverpool into the Fast-Track Cities initiative and undertook a city-wide consultation to identify the needs of people living with HIV and HCV.
A strategy group with expertise in HIV and HCV was created. This group, and its four sub-groups, comprise of lead clinicians and clinical staff from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, senior staff and people living with HIV from Sahir House (HIV charity) and public health practitioners from Liverpool City Council.
Four sub-groups have been set up to drive the work forward. There is an initial focus on increasing HIV and HCV testing, as early access to testing services plays a vital role in reducing late diagnosis and reduces the number of people who are not aware of their HIV status, unknowingly passing the virus on to others. Other important areas of work are stigma reduction and equality, including minority ethnic communities through education and awareness campaigns.
Liverpool’s latest data from 2018 shows the proportion of people diagnosed with HIV is 2.20 per 1000 population. The 2017 HCV 2017 detection rate was 3.5 per 1000 population.
Liverpool aims to reduce the proportion of residents living with undiagnosed HIV and HCV and extend the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target to 95-95-95 through accessible high-quality service delivery, support, information and choices to people living with HIV and HCV. We want to make our pathways stronger, more integrated and eliminate stigma.
Liverpool’s key opinion leader is Professor Miriam Taegtmeyer, email miriam.taegtmeyer@lstmed.ac.uk