One in four of those living with HIV in the UK do not know they’re infected. That means they can’t access today’s life-saving treatment, and may unknowingly be passing on the infection to others. We believe with many others that normalising and increasing rates of HIV testing is the best way to combat this problem. To achieve this, we need to reduce stigma – and that’s where footballers and their clubs can come in.

Managers and players alike – from Mick McCarthy to Chris Hughton, Curtis Davies to Stiliyan Petrov, Karl Henry and Ben Foster – have put their names down as wanting to save lives by promoting HIV testing. It’s an amazing development, and the first time that Premiership footballers have supported a domestic campaign of this sort.

You can watch videos featuring the footballers and their clubs here.

Dr Mark Newbold, chief executive of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, welcomed the new guidelines as “very important”, and said that they “fully support what we have been trying to achieve locally: that is, diagnosing HIV early, when treatment is most effective and we can make a real impact on saving lives”.

“We have recently introduced a new HIV testing protocol across our 4 hospitals as part of our collaboration with the national “Saving Lives Trust” and these are very much in-line with the much needed the guidance from NICE, as well as those by the British HIV Association and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV”.

The Trust, is now one of the first in the country to implement its new HIV testing policy, encouraging clinicians and healthcare professionals from across the trust to include and recommend routine HIV tests to patients who present to the trusts hospital with key indicator conditions.

“With 22,000 people infected with HIV in the UK still unaware they are infected, normalising testing and making it  more routinely accepted is the only way we can tackle this silent problem,” said Dr Newbold.

Dr Stephen Taylor, lead consultant at the Birmingham Heartlands HIV Service, added:

“There are four reasons why people are dying of advanced HIV in the UK:

1.      They do not consider themselves at risk.

2.      HIV testing is not routinely offered in GP practices or hospitals.

3.      One in four people (22,000) infected with HIV in the UK remain undiagnosed.

4.      If undiagnosed they cannot receive life saving treatment and can unknowingly infect others.

“Of the newly diagnosed HIV-positive people admitted to our hospital last year, over 80% of them were late diagnoses, and all had been in contact with medical services multiple times in the year preceding their admission to hospital”

“Some of these patients died because they simply presented too late for the therapy to be effective. The tragedy is that this could have been avoided if patients were diagnosed in the community much earlier. Not only that, but earlier diagnosis may have prevented their sexual partners from becoming infected,” he added.

“The new Saving Lives HIV testing guidelines we now have in place set out very clearly the indicator conditions, which should prompt healthcare professionals to offer and recommend routine HIV testing” he explained.

The NICE guidance comes out on a day when new data from the HPA (Health Protection Agency (HPA)  reveal  that new diagnoses for people infected with HIV in the UK almost doubled over the past decade, (from 1,950 in 2001 to 3,780 in 2010 )

If these 3,780 UK-acquired cases in 2010 had been prevented, over £32 million annually or £1.2 billion over a lifetime in costs could have been saved.

The Birmingham Heartlands HIV service and the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust are therefore proud to be involved with the newly formed not-for-profit Saving Lives Campaign. Each organisation shares the aims of raising awareness, preventing late diagnosis, leading patients onto treatment more quickly … and thus  saving lives and preventing new infections.

Goalkeeper Ben Foster and midfielders Alexander Hleb and Craig Gardner are lending their names to Football Saving Lives, a national health promotion project with its base in the second city.
“Saving lives is, of course, a lot harder than saving goals,” says Foster, the Birmingham City and England goalkeeper “But I’m a proud to be an ambassador for this campaign precisely because it makes things so simple: get tested, get treated. It’s as easy as that. It is definitely in your best interest to get HIV tested if you get the opportunity: if you’re negative, then you can stay that way, and if you turn out positive there are now life saving treatments available ”

Football Saving Lives is part of a broad-based awareness campaign established by the Heartlands HIV Service’s lead consultant, Dr Steve Taylor. “One in four of those who have HIV are unaware they’re infected,” he explains. “That means that they cannot access the life-saving treatment we can now offer, and in addition they may well be unknowingly infecting others. We need to tackle this problem and diagnose the 22,000 people in the UK who have HIV but are totally unawaret.”

Football Saving Lives aims to raise awareness and correct the inaccurate assumptions that the public have surrounding HIV and HIV testing. This reluctance to take the test, or tendency to consider oneself not at risk, remains one of the key reasons people continue to present to hospital services so late.

People still die of HIV despite the fact there is excellent treatment availible if diagnosed early. By aiming accessible messages at audiences usually either resistant or under-exposed to sexual health and HIV messages, the campaign and its advocates hope to change the way HIV and HIV testing are perceived in the UK.

“I grew up in Birmingham,” says Blues midfielder Gardner, “and I remember the HIV prevention campaigns at school. But I haven’t heard anybody talk about HIV for years – I thought it had just gone away. But to think that there are some 22,000 people out there who have no idea they are infected is a really scary statistic. I’m supporting this campaign because I believe that education and raising awareness are the best ways of helping young people look after their sexual health and start to reduce the spread of HIV.”

If the campaign succeeds in increasing the number of people presenting themselves to doctor for HIV tests, more patients will get onto treatment earlier – and this can extend their lives significantly, allowing them to live life to the full. It will also reduce the rate of new infections, since those on treatment are much less likely to transmit the virus. Ninety-five per cent of pregnant women already receive an HIV test as standard – and onwards transmission to babies has thus been virtually eliminated.

“Football Saving Lives is about getting these really important public health messages regarding sexual health and HIV testing out to the public,” summarises Alexander Hleb, on loan to the Blues from Barcelona. It’s a goal all three players seem to believe in, and with the generous permission of their club they’re doing something about it.

The Blues may be focused on winning the carling Cup for their team and city on Sunday – but they also have Saving Lives on their mind.

More information on football saving lives including player profiles can be found on the new websitewww.savinglivesuk.com

You can read our Saving Lives booklet here, and view further information about the project, its aims and achievements, by downloading this document, or visiting this page.

12.45 Report:

17.45 Report:

Beer Goggles Johnny is, as always, the driving force behind this campaign – he’s like the Energiser Bunny, never running out of steam. You can look at his page, with videos, images and links elsewhere, here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHn4NZ8AaOo&feature=player_embedded

The best one within a week of World AIDS Day (today) will win the t-shirt. Happy captioning!

1. BGJ, supporting the national Time to Test campaign
2. HIV testing Saving Lives Campaign
3. A4 HIV Testing Guide
4. Christmas Balls Poster
5. Original Beer Goggles Johnny poster
6. Beer Goggles Johnny Football poster
7. Latex Larry

You can click on either of the links above to download the corresponding poster and print out for display at your own clinics, centres or services.