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Health bus providing outreach services for HIV Testing Week

27 November 2014

A mobile ‘health bus’ is providing HIV testing services to identify those with the condition as early as possible.

A mobile ‘health bus’ is providing HIV testing services to identify those with the condition as early as possible.

Gary Whitlock, Consultant  said: “As many as one in four people with HIV could be unaware of their status, so it is vital that as many people as possible are tested in order to diagnose the condition as early as possible.

“We hope this year’s outreach service will reach even more people than last year, when we saw nearly 700 people at 10 events. Around 75% of these were new to the service and 660 HIV tests were carried out.”

Last year, the outreach service reached a higher number of men, young people and those from black and minority ethnic communities when compared with Chelsea and Westminster’s three mainstream genitourinary medicine (GUM) services over the same timeframe. 

Nine out of ten patients rated the outreach service as excellent, while four out of ten said they had not previously tested for HIV and a similar number said they would not have had the test otherwise.

The mobile outreach service also provides screening for other sexually transmitted infections where appropriate.

For more information visit: www.faststdtest.nhs.uk

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George Vasilopoulos