Sir Keir Starmer announces funding for A&E testing as he marks World Aids Day

Sir Keir Starmer has announced backing to assistance successful the extremity of stopping caller transmissions of HIV successful England by 2030.

The Prime Minister has pledged £27 cardinal to grow the exigency section investigating programme, successful which humor tests are automatically tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C unless a diligent opts out.

He besides reiterated the extremity of ending caller cases of HIV successful England successful the coming years arsenic helium addressed a Downing Street reception up of World Aids Day connected Sunday.

Sir Keir told the Downing Street reception: “I americium determined that this procreation volition beryllium the 1 that ends caller cases of HIV wrong England by 2030.”

He went on: “We tin bash thing astir it, and it’s precise pleasing to beryllium capable to say, confirming that we’ll beryllium expanding A&E opt retired HIV testing, a programme that has carried retired implicit 2 cardinal HIV tests successful the past fewer years.

“We request to diagnose arsenic galore cases arsenic rapidly arsenic possible, and that allows america past to springiness the champion attraction imaginable and halt the microorganism being passed connected to others.

“It’s astir testing, aboriginal intervention, that accidental to marque specified a difference, due to the fact that astatine the bottommost of each this, it is dignity, and that’s thing I attraction profoundly about.”

He added: “We volition basal unneurotic for arsenic agelong arsenic it takes, successful representation of those that we’ve lost, successful enactment of those who are surviving with HIV contiguous and with a determination for the aboriginal to beryllium that archetypal state successful the satellite that ends caller cases of HIV.”

According to Number 10, the archetypal 24 months of the investigating programme saw 2,018,943 HIV tests, 1,535,707 Hepatitis C microorganism tests and 1,221,961 Hepatitis B microorganism tests, crossed 34 exigency departments.

An HIV enactment program is owed to beryllium published successful summertime 2025.

As portion of their committedness to trim wellness inequalities, Labour pledged specified a program for England, with the presumption to eradicating caller cases.

Among the attendees astatine Thursday’s reception were representatives from the National Aids Trust, the Elton John Aids Foundation and the Terrence Higgins Trust.