The late diagnosis of a third of UK HIV-positive adults last year means they missed vital early treatment that might extend their lives, says the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
It reports that of 7,298 new diagnoses, 32% had a CD4 cell count of <200 per mm3, a point at which treatment should already have begun.
The British HIV Association says that patients should receive treatment when their CD4 count reaches <350 rather than wait until it falls to <200. A 'clean' count for men is 400 to 1200, and 500 to 1600 for women.
The HPA notes that 100,000 more people were tested at genitor-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics in 2008 than the previous year's 850,000. In 2004, 23% of visitors to a GUM clinic were not tested.
Says Dr Valerie Delpech, an HIV expert at the Health Protection Agency: "We need to continually reinforce the safe sex message - that using a condom with all new or casual sexual partners is the surest way to ensure you do not become infected with a serious sexually transmitted infection such as HIV."
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