HIV Testing Week 2021

National HIV Testing Week is a campaign to promote regular testing among the most-affected population groups in England. Regular testing helps to reduce the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV and those diagnosed late.

This year, the campaign returns with the successful creative ‘Give HIV the finger: a finger-prick test is all it takes’.

The campaign will encourage people to test for HIV at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of people diagnosed with HIV is falling, but there is still work to do:

• 1 in 16 people with HIV are unaware they have it and spend an average of three to five years not knowing, increasing the risk of passing HIV on to sexual partners.
• Late diagnosis rates are still stubbornly high – 42% of people were diagnosed late in 2019. This correlates to poorer long-term health outcomes and leads to an eightfold increased risk of death.
• Clinical reviews show many could have been diagnosed sooner

Your free home testing kit can be ordered at https://freetesting.hiv/