World AIDS Day 2018—a celebration of our history

Photo: COO Rob Hodgkiss (second left) and CEO Lesley Watts (right) join our St Stephen’s Centre volunteers on World AIDS Day

For the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day, we look back at the significant steps in our treatment.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has seven different HIV/sexual health clinics across London, including 56 Dean Street, and is recognised as a global centre of excellence in this area of healthcare. Since diagnosing one of the first known cases of HIV in a patient in 1979, the Trust has continued to play an integral part in one of the greatest successes of modern medicine in the Western world: the fight against AIDS.

1980

John Hunter Clinic for Sexual Health opens. In the same year, a patient is referred by Dr Lawrence to Dr Brian Gazzard because of an undefined medical illness associated with wasting and diarrhoea. In the week that the AIDS epidemic was first recognised and reported in San Francisco, this patient developed pneumonia and was diagnosed as having AIDS.

1987

The new St Stephen’s Centre is constructed, offering a five-storey facility dedicated to providing a multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of patients with AIDS.

1988

Princess Diana opens the Kobler Clinic, the first HIV clinic in the UK, marking a key shift in support for the crisis.

1996

Significant leaps in treatment mean a second ward is closed due to a reduction in the number of incidents.

2003

The Trust has first NHS service to offer rapid 1-hour HIV Point of Care (PoC) testing.

2011

56 Dean Street achieves the World Record for the most HIV tests performed in one location on World AIDS Day at G-A-Y Bar in Soho, London.

2014

Dean Street Express opens. It is the first clinic in the world to have an on-site Infinity machine, allowing the service to give results within 6 hours.

2017

56 Dean Street launches the ‘Plan ZERO’ campaign to combat HIV including a Dean Street PRIME service for members most at risk. Hospital charity CW+ funds a new health and wellbeing app for HIV patients, designed by clinicians at the Trust, called BeYou+ which provides users with reliable information about their body, mind and life when living with HIV.

2018

The 30th anniversary of the Kobler Clinic marks 30 years of incredible developments in the prevention and treatment of HIV. With frequent testing, early antiretroviral therapy and a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) NHS England Trial, the Trust sees a significant reduction in the number of positive diagnoses.