Barnsley Football Club supports World AIDS Day 2018.
Saving Lives exists to raise awareness about testing for HIV and other blood-borne viruses (BBVs) or sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including the hepatitis B and C viruses.
More than ten thousand people living with HIV in the UK are not aware they are infected. This means they are not accessing life-saving treatment and may be unknowingly infecting others. Testing for HIV is the only way to improve this situation, and promoting that service whilst reducing stigma is the best means of improving uptake.
Likewise, 1 in 12 people worldwide are living with the Hepatitis B or C virus. Every year, 1 million people die because of liver failure or liver cancer caused by Hepatitis B or C. And yet Hepatitis B and C are entirely treatable, if you find out early enough.
The people with these viruses may not be members of groups traditionally considered to be ‘at risk’, and doctors may miss their symptoms. Saving Lives therefore seeks to place testing messages where people can see them: at the football stadium or rock concert, in the tabloids or on the TV, and in so doing improve both the general consciousness of HIV, BBVs and STIs, and our knowledge of the responsibility we share to check its advance through early and effective diagnosis.
