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Day: June 7, 2018

HIV testing kit vending machines win national award

Posted on by Besi

Pilot scheme at Brighton Sauna wins prestigious award.

From left to right: Dr Peralta, Dr Rodriguez, Dr Vera, Dr Soni, Dr Dean and Dr Llewellyn
From left to right: Dr Peralta, Dr Rodriguez, Dr Vera, Dr Soni, Dr Dean and Dr Llewellyn

A WORLD-FIRST touch-screen digital vending machine which dispenses free HIV self-test kits at the Brighton Sauna has received a national award for designers and health experts at the University of Brighton, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, the design consultancy Díptico and the Martin Fisher Foundation, a local charity working towards zero new HIV infections and zero HIV stigma.

The team won the highly prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) 2018 Innovation Award which attracted 3,500 applicants in 15 categories, each category having six finalists.

The BMJ Awards, now in their 10th year, are the UK’s premier medical awards programme, recognising and celebrating the inspirational work done by doctors and their teams. Their mission is to improve patient outcomes and showcase the best healthcare in the UK.

The Martin Fisher Foundation received funding from Public Health England as part of the 2016 HIV Prevention Innovation Fund for the vending machine pilot which started in June 2017. It has since distributed over 300 tests and the project has been evaluated with 95 per cent of recipients saying they would recommend this type of testing to others.

Its success has been credited to collaboration between HIV clinicians Dr Jaime Vera, Dr Gillian Dean, and Dr Suneeta Soni, designers/researchers Dr Carlos Peralta and Dr Liliana Rodriguez, and researchers Dr Carrie Llewellyn and Alex Pollard, and sauna staff.

Dr Peralta, Senior Lecturer in Design in the University of Brighton’s School of Architecture & Design, said: “This award demonstrates how positive interdisciplinary collaboration between designers and health experts can be, and how design can be employed in projects geared toward social benefit.

“The project will be included in the Compendium of Good HIV Practices in the World Health Organisation European Region. We are also currently developing two other related projects, a campaign to increase HIV testing in GP practices, and a digital campaign to eliminate HIV stigma.”

Dr Gillian Dean, trustee of the Martin Fisher Foundation and project lead, added: “Ten per cent of people with HIV are unaware of their infection – this technology gives us the opportunity to reach these individuals and move towards elimination of HIV within the next generation.”

Dr Liliana Rodriguez, a services design expert from the design consultancy Díptico and affiliated to the Martin Fisher Foundation, said the development of the project was underpinned by workshops with members of the LGTB+ communities.

Professor Matteo Santin, academic lead for Healthy Futures, one of five themes for cross-cutting research and enterprise across the University of Brighton, said: “The award recognises the impact that our research and enterprise for health has on our communities. It is wholly deserved and makes us all very proud to see this happening through the interdisciplinary collaboration between our University and the Medical School.”

Dr Vera, senior lecturer in HIV medicine at BSMS, said: “One of the Foundation’s strategic goals is to ensure everyone in Brighton & Hove is aware of their HIV status and specifically all sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) test for HIV at least once per year.

“Brighton & Hove is home to an estimated 14,000 MSM, of whom 2,500 are already HIV positive. That leaves 11,500 needing an HIV test. In 2016 about 4,000 were tested through conventional services and third sector organisations, leaving 7,500 potentially untested. Men can be reluctant to use mainstream services and self-testing might reach those missing men, particularly if they could access kits from a vending machine in a place they frequent.

“The Brighton Sauna, visited by around 400 men a week, was one such place where staff were aware of high levels of sexual risk taking but low levels of engagement with outreach workers to discuss HIV testing.

“Uptake during the pilot (approximately 35 tests per month) was greater than from community outreach workers prior to the machine being installed (4.5 tests per month). We don’t know if the kits have actually been used, or what the results are, but we’re working on a second generation kit with smart packaging that will tell us when it’s been opened.”

Dr Dean concluded: “The second generation of machines are ready to be rolled out across the city with the aim of ensuring everyone is aware of their HIV status. Only then can we move towards zero new HIV infections.”

Sexual Health in crisis say National AIDS Trust

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New figures from Public Health England (PHE) reveal a 20% increase in syphilis and 22% increase in gonorrhoea diagnoses nationally, despite the overall rates of sexually transmitted infections across the country remaining stable in 2017 compared to 2016.

REPORTED cases of syphilis increased from 5,955 in 2016 to 7,137 in 2017. The increase follows a ten-year trend, with 78% of the diagnoses in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM).

PHE is working with partner organisations to develop an action plan to address this rise by increasing numbers and frequency of tests in populations at higher risk of infection, and to promote early detection and treatment. Across all STIs, the highest rates of diagnoses continue to be seen in 16-24 year olds.

PHE says it is important to increase condom use and encourages testing following changes in partners, in order to drive down the transmission of infections. For this reason they launched the sexual health campaign Protect Against STIs in December 2017 ‒ aimed at promoting condom use in this key demographic.

Dr Gwenda Hughes, Consultant Scientist and Head of Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Section at PHE, said: “Sexually transmitted infections pose serious consequences to health – both your own and that of your current and future sexual partners. The impact of STIs can be considerable, with some causing infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and harm to unborn babies.

“Consistent and correct condom use with new and casual partners is the best defence against STIs, and if you are at risk, regular check-ups are essential to enable early diagnosis and treatment.”

NAT (National AIDS Trust) says these diagnoses indicate we are suffering a sexual health crisis and that PHE are failing to address the STI epidemic effectively despite repeated warnings from sexual health organisations, and most recently from the Royal College of Nursing, of dangerous disinvestment from sexual health services.

Deborah Gold
Deborah Gold

Deborah Gold, Chief Executive of NAT, said: “This Government is presiding over a national crisis in sexual health, caused in large part by the decision to implement year-on-year cuts to the public health grant which funds sexual health services. We urgently need to ensure that there is parity of esteem between sexual health services and all other healthcare, significantly increase public health funding, improve timely access to high quality sexual health services and increase substantially the numbers of STI tests taken by people at risk.”

Other data published within in the report show a fall in rates of genital warts, reflecting the widespread uptake of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine in girls aged 12-13.

The report also indicates an 8% decline in chlamydia testing and 2% drop in chlamydia diagnoses in 15 -24 year olds.

People at risk of STIs can access services through sexual health or genitourinary medicine clinics.

PHE recommend regular HIV and STI testing for those with new or casual partners. Men who have sex with men who are having condomless sex with new or casual partners should seek testing every three months.  

Local STI services can be located online via NHS Choices.  

Review recommends improvements for Council’s housing repairs contract

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Recommendations from an independent review into Brighton & Hove Council’s repairs and improvement contract with Mears will be used to help improve services and the drawing up of future contract agreements.

THE review was commissioned to look at what the council needs to consider in future repairs contracts and how the council and Mears can work together better through the remaining time of the current contract.

The findings of the review will be discussed at the Housing & New Homes Committee on June 13.

The report acknowledges that the partnership with Mears which began in 2010 worked well in the early years – bringing improvements to the repairs service, reducing costs and maintaining 100% of the council’s housing at Decent Homes Standard levels since the target was initially reached in December 2013.

The partnership delivered its main goals quickly and people interviewed for the review felt the contract worked well.

However, the review identifies that issues in the relationship between the council and Mears, initial oversights in the design of the contract, and individual contractual issues, have meant the partnership hasn’t always worked as well as it might have, especially in terms of the major improvement work required. This has led to a feeling that the overall opinion of the partnership is much less positive than it ought to be.

Cllr Anne Meadows
Cllr Anne Meadows

Councillor Anne Meadows, Chair of the Housing & New Homes Committee, said: “We commissioned this review to look at what we can do to improve working arrangements and processes around our housing repairs and improvement service both now and into the future.

“We have had problems with the partnership and acknowledge what we need to do to improve how we work with partners. We have worked with Mears to bring in improvements to the processes but there is more to do. This was an open review and we will look at all the issues and recommendations raised.

“However, it is also important to highlight the many successes of the partnership. It has delivered a good value repairs service and allowed us to achieve 100% Decent Homes across our housing in 2014 from a starting point of 51% in 2009.”

To read the full report, click here:

Scottish Parliament passes into law ‘Pardons Bill’

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The Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Bill had its final stage 3 debate in the Scottish Parliament, yesterday afternoon (June 7).

THE Bill, that pardons people convicted of the old discriminatory offences involving sex between men was passed by a vote of 119-0.

Tim Hopkins
Tim Hopkins

Tim Hopkins, Director of the Scottish LGBTI charity, Equality Network, said: “We very much welcome the Parliament passing this bill. This is concrete recognition of the huge harm that was done to people who were prosecuted or lived under these old laws. Together with the First Minister’s public apology in the Parliament in November, the message is that Scotland has changed for good, and that discrimination is no longer acceptable.

“The next stage will be to implement and publicise the new law. Publicity will be crucial so that all those affected by these historical convictions get to hear about it.

“LGBTI people continue to face prejudice and hostility, and there is much more to do. We look forward to continuing to work with the Scottish Government, on the forthcoming reform of the Gender Recognition Act for trans people, and other work to address homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, and to promote fairness for all.”

The bill states clearly that these historical convictions were wrong and discriminatory, and the First Minister of Scotland, made a public apology for this on behalf of the Scottish Government when the bill was published on November 7 last year.

The bill gives a formal pardon for these convictions where the activity would not be a crime today. The pardon applies both posthumously to people who are no longer living, and to those who are living. The bill also enables people who have one of these convictions on their records to have it removed (called a “disregard”), so that it no longer shows up on criminal record checks for employment or volunteering.

Tim Hopkins added: “The bill does a better job than the equivalent legislation in the rest of the UK. Unlike that legislation, it provides an automatic pardon to people who are still alive, and also covers all the old discriminatory offences, including where men were prosecuted simply for chatting up other men – called ‘importuning’.”

Until 1981, all sexual activity between men was a criminal offence in Scotland.  Legislation in 1980 (which came into effect in 1981) decriminalised sex between men over the age of 21 (the age of consent for sex between men and women, or between two women, was then 16). In 1994 the age of consent for sex between men was reduced from 21 to 18, but it was not until 2001 that the discrimination was removed, by equalising the age of consent at 16.

Prior to these changes, men were prosecuted for activity with another man that would have been legal then between a man and a woman, and that is legal today between two men. This included consensual sexual activity in private, and acts such as kissing another man in a public place, or just chatting up another man in a public place.

The Equality Network estimates that the total number of these historical discriminatory convictions in Scotland runs into thousands, and that there are hundreds of men alive today with such convictions on their records.

Sex between women was never criminalised in this way in Scotland, and the same rules applied to it as applied for sex between a man and a woman.

It is likely to take some months for the Scottish Government to put in place the regulations that will set out how criminal records will be updated when a disregard is granted, so it is expected that the new law will come into effect towards the end of the year.

 

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