Earlier this year Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT (National Aids Trust) told DurexHCP visitors about a worrying decline in awareness and understanding of HIV over the last decade, revealed by the Ipsos MORI research study they commissioned.

Now Deborah brings us up to speed on what NAT is doing to address this disturbing knowledge gap, including the launch of HIVaware.org.uk, a new website which provides clear, current and trustworthy information about HIV for the general public.

What were the key findings from our research?

Our research showed that many people simply don’t know the basic facts about HIV.

• Understanding of routes of virus transmission is low
  Only 30% of people can correctly choose the ways HIV can and cannot be transmitted from a list of options. Indeed, 1 in 5 people are unaware that HIV can be passed on through sex wihout a condom between a man and a woman – and a similar proportion failed to recognise unprotected sex between two men as a route of HIV transmission.

  This is particularly worrying when over 90% of people who were diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 2010 were infected through sexual contact.

• Many know little about modern HIV testing 42% of people think that you have to wait 3 months to receive a reliable HIV test result, when tests can now provide an accurate result from four weeks after possible infection.

• And there are many other myths and misconceptions For example, 46% of people believe that there are no effective ways of preventing a pregnant woman with HIV from passing it on to her child; the truth is that in the UK today, less then 1% of babies born to HIV positive mothers have HIV.

What does everyone need to know about HIV?

So, what is the essential information everyone needs to know about HIV? NAT believes that everybody should know:

• The correct routes of HIV transmission and should also understand that HIV is not passed on through casual contact.

• How to protect themselves, and others, from HIV infection.

• How, where and when to get an HIV test and to know how soon after potential infection they can get an accurate test result

• That the risk of HIV infection can be significantly reduced if they take treatment (PEP) very soon after exposure

What is NAT doing?

Since the research was published in January, we have:

• Continued to campaign for compulsory sex and relationship education in schools and have updated our teaching resources.

• Undertaken an audit of popular websites that contain information about sex, and have uncovered a lot of outdated, incomplete and incorrect information. We are in the process of contacting the web-owners and proposing updated content.

• Created a brand-new website, HIVaware.org.uk and developed simple leaflets that can be downloaded from the site.

HIVaware.org.uk — what everyone needs to know about HIV

HIVaware.org.uk provides all the information that people should know about HIV in a simple, engaging and interactive format.

With a lot of support from Durex, we have used our expertise to make sure the general public can find clear, current and trustworthy information about HIV, including:

• Facts and statistics

• Common myths exposed

• Frequently asked questions

• Downloadable resources

• Social networking links

• Real stories from people living with HIV in the UK

How can healthcare professionals play their part?

As a healthcare professional you need to be sure that you know the facts about HIV and feel confident talking about HIV as part of any discussion about sexual health.

And as part of these discussions you can now confidently signpost the public to the HIVaware website, with NAT’s assurance that the content and downloadable resources will be kept up to date and accurate

And by displaying the posters and distributing the information flyers that are available free of charge via this website, you can begin to tackle the invisibility of HIV and encourage your patients to think — and talk — about HIV.

About the Author

Deborah Jack is Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust). Before joining NAT in December 2003, Deborah worked at Brook - the sexual health charity for young people - as Head of Policy & Campaigns and Deputy Chief Executive.

Article release date: 6th October 2011