Displaying items by tag: AIDS

On 1 December, to mark World AIDS Day, Margaret Sentamu, wife of the Archbishop of York, joined NHS staff from York’s sexual health services and charity Yorkshire MESMAC to highlight the importance of taking a HIV test.  Demonstrating how simple it can be, Margaret took a finger prick test where the result can be given within twenty minutes. She said: ‘It’s important to raise awareness - not just for one day, but all year round - of the importance of getting tested. There have been fantastic advances in medication which means people can now live a completely normal life, particularly when they get an early diagnosis.’ Margaret recalled the devastating impact of losing family and friends to AIDS in her home country of Uganda. While the HIV epidemic is slowing in the UK, nearly half of people who test positive are finding out they have HIV very late, meaning that it virus may already have damaged their health permanently. Over 100,000 people live with HIV, and around a quarter of them don’t know they’re HIV positive.