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Routine check at London King's College Hospital A&E finds 32 people who did not know they had HIV

The A&E department at King's College Hospital in London: Getty Images
The A&E department at King's College Hospital in London: Getty Images

One of London’s busiest A&E departments is to routinely screen patients for HIV after a pilot scheme found 32 people unknowingly carrying the virus.

King’s College hospital, in Denmark Hill, launched the 12-month initiative last year after receiving £250,000 from the Elton John Aids Foundation to tackle late diagnoses.

A total of 24,037 adult patients who were undergoing blood tests had a sample analysed for HIV. The hospital’s catchment area covers Lambeth and Southwark, which had the highest and third highest number of HIV cases in the country — 288 and 114 — last year.

About half of those who tested positive were considered “late diagnoses” and would have been at high risk of developing Aids. They were given anti-retroviral medication, which can prevent onward transmission of HIV.

Dr Killian Quinn, consultant in sexual health at the hospital, said: “With the sophisticated medicines now available, HIV is no longer a death sentence but a treatable condition. One of the most common reasons people develop complications is because they don’t know they have the infection. Our universal testing scheme is a big step forward in addressing this issue.”

A lawyer in his late 20s who was diagnosed with HIV in March said: “Getting diagnosed early has given me a second chance, and helped me avoid a situation worse than being infected with HIV — being responsible for passing it on to someone else.

“I’m very grateful to King’s for everything they’ve done for me and to the Elton John Aids Foundation for enabling my swift diagnosis.”

Sir Elton, who visited the hospital with partner David Furnish last year, recalled opening a HIV treatment centre at King’s 23 years earlier, when there was little that could be done to save patients. He said his aim was to help King’s to lead “the kind of innovation that will get us to an Aids-free future”.