Why We Are Needed

• The number of people living with HIV in the UK has more than trebled since 1997 and it is now one of the most serious infectious diseases facing the UK, with one in three infections undiagnosed.
  
  
• One in three people living with HIV in the UK have experienced severe poverty, and some marginalised groups are unable to access proper treatment and care.
  
  
• A third of people living with HIV in the UK have experienced discrimination, and half of those experiences were in accessing healthcare.
  
  
• In addition, although legal protection from discrimination has increased, discrimination in the workplace still occurs and one in three people in the UK still do not realise that this is illegal. 
  
  
• The number of black Africans diagnosed with HIV in the UK increased fourfold between 1999 and 2003.
  
  
• Two thirds of black Africans seen for care in the UK in 2004 were women.
  
  
• A quarter of deaths from AIDS in the UK are due to late diagnosis of HIV and a third were preventable.
  
  
• Myths about HIV are still common. People in the UK are less aware of how HIV is transmitted than they were five years ago and across the EU, 60% of people believe you can be infected with HIV through kissing.
  
  
• Internationally HIV and AIDS is the worst pandemic the world has ever faced.
  
  
• Despite increases in the number of people accessing anti-retroviral treatment in developing countries, over three quarters of people living with HIV (76%) in developing countries still cannot access life saving treatment.
  
  

Tackling all of these problems now could save millions of lives.