Blood: Viral Diseases

(asked on 20th March 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs and benefits of funding HIV and hepatitis testing in emergency departments.


Answered by
Lord Markham Portrait
Lord Markham
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 28th March 2023

NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will publish the reports for the first year of opt-out human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and blood borne virus testing, including hepatitis, in 2023. When examining the feasibility of further expanding HIV opt-out testing to areas of high prevalence, we will be considering these results and assess its contribution to finding cases of undiagnosed or untreated HIV and preventing further HIV transmissions in the areas it is currently being rolled out. We will also take into account data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions, acquired immune deficiency syndrome and HIV related deaths within England by 2030, including the estimated number of people living with undiagnosed HIV, published regularly by UKHSA through the HIV Action Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

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