There are now 71 people living with HIV in the Bailiwick.
That has increased from 54 at the end of 2023 and 35 in 2018, according to data shared with Express by the Health and Social Care Committee.
40% of all cases are female with 60% male.
Dr Nicola Brink; Guernsey’s Lead HIV Clinician and the Director of Public Health, said the increase is down to a number of factors.
“If you look at the increase it’s a combination of things,” she explained. “We have people relocating here and transferring their care to us, but that’s together with new diagnoses.
“The new diagnoses we detect through a number of routes. As part of sexual health screening, we will offer people an HIV test and when we diagnose a new HIV positive case, we do what we call partner notification and with partner notification, we ask people about their sexual partners, and then we offer those partners HIV testing. So we do detect cases of HIV through partner notification, and then we also have had a big push for symptomatic testing, and these are people with clinical symptoms.”
Human Immunodeficiency Virus attacks the body’s immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) but with prescribed medical care the virus can be controlled and if it is undetectable in the body it is considered to be untransmittable.
Dr Brink said people living with HIV can live a long and healthy life now, compared to the death sentence it was in the 1980s.
“I’m sure you all know that it can weaken the immune system with time. But the important thing about HIV and early diagnosis is that you can live a long and healthy life if you’re treated effectively. Now there’s certain diseases and certain symptomatic infections, and these include things like tuberculosis, pneumonia, for example pneumocystis pneumonia, and certain cancers as well, such as some cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and those are symptomatic.
“If we look at why we’ve seen an increase (in cases), it’s a combination of people relocating together with our push for new diagnoses so that we can manage people effectively, and them coming to us for sexual health screening through partner notification and through our symptomatic testing program,” she said
The Orchard Centre at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital was offering ‘drop in’ HIV tests for free yesterday as part of events marking World AIDS Day.
The global awareness day has been held on 1 December every year since 1988, in memory of those who have died of the disease.
Dr Brink said HIV tests are always free at the Orchard Centre, but they should be booked in advance at other times.
“The Orchard Center is an open access clinic, so you don’t have to get referred into the Orchard Centre from your GP or from your consultant,” she explained.
“Anyone can sign up and make an appointment and ask for a sexual health screen, and that’s also free as well, so not only is it open access, it’s free.
“What we wanted to do on World Aids Day, and really our aim was, was just to look at awareness, make people aware that we are there, we have open access, on World AIDS Day people could just walk in and get a HIV test, and really put that focus on prevention.
“Prevention is so important,” she added.
“Alongside that, breaking down stigma and really the message we’ve pushed is that if you know your status, it’s such a powerful step to protecting your own health so that you can live a long and healthy life, but it also protects your community. So it’s really us all working together.”