Save the date: National HIV Testing Week 2018

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Save the date for NHTW 2018 - Saturday 17 November

It’s less than four months until National HIV Testing Week starts on Saturday 17 November 2018.

The purpose of the week is to promote regular testing among the most affected population groups and to reduce the rates of undiagnosed people and those diagnosed late.

In the UK, the combination prevention approach to HIV means we are witnessing a substantial decline in HIV diagnoses for the first time.

However, the work must not stop here. There was a small increase in late diagnoses between 2015 (39%) and 2016 (42%), which means testing is still as important as ever.

National HIV Testing Week puts a national spotlight on HIV testing

National HIV Testing Week provides amplified opportunities for individuals who would otherwise never test to do so, and prompts all individuals at risk to get tested. Last year:

  • Prince Harry attended the opening of Terrence Higgins Trust’s HIV self-testing Pop-up Shop in Hackney, London, to launch the national campaign at the highest level.
  • On the same day, Public Health England (PHE) released new figures which showed that the drive to increase HIV testing is having an impact, with a 21.8% drop in the number of people who are undiagnosed and do not know that they are living with HIV.
  • More MPs than ever tested for HIV in 2017. We worked in collaboration with Yorkshire MESMAC, The African Institute of Social Development, Staffordshire Buddies, Sunrise Family Support, Trade Sexual Health, LASS, Summit House, The Brigstowe Project and The Brunswick Centre to test 16 MPs all around England.
  • Clinics and community organisations prepared more than 300 additional testing events around the country for people to participate in.

Help make this year’s event a success

Preparations for National HIV Testing Week 2018 are well underway. To keep up to date with the latest news, information and how to get involved, sign up to our newsletter.

Social media pack for summer campaign 2018

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I'm Stopping HIV - Sadiq

We have created a social media pack to help you promote the HIV Prevention England summer campaign on your social media. The campaign launched on Monday 18 June 2018.

Theme

The campaign will be raising awareness and promoting actions of the various ways to prevent HIV such as condoms, testing, PrEP and treatment.

The tagline for the campaign is ‘I’m stopping HIV.’ and an explanation of which prevention tool used will follow. The people featured in the campaign images and videos are a mixture of people living with and without HIV.

Hashtag

This year’s summer campaign hashtag is #ImStoppingHIV.

Hashtags are not case sensitive so using #imstoppinghiv would work as well – we’ve just used capitals to make it easier to read what the hashtag is about.

What’s in the pack?

Images: a selection of images for use on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any another social network.

Links: to information on the various ways of preventing HIV. There are links to interactive tools that:

  • Recommend the best condom to use,
  • assess when someone should get tested,
  • help to choose a type of test based on preference and suitability,
  • help to find local testing services.

Suggested posts: examples of posts for Facebook and Instagram as well as tweets for Twitter.

Videos:
I’m stopping HIV
I’m stopping HIV – Summer

Downloads

What we are asking people to do?

Our summer campaign calls to action are:

Be educated: learn what the four different ways to prevent HIV are and why they are important.

Make changes: we want people to know how to reduce the risk of getting HIV by:

  • choosing the right fitting condom
  • finding out if they need to get tested for HIV, where to do it and the different ways they can via the tools on our website,
  • understanding what PrEP is, how it works and how to access it,
  • encouraging people living with HIV to access and adhere to treatment for health benefits for themselves and for the added advantage of not having to worry about passing it on to anyone else.

Pass it forward: share the information from the campaign messages with friends, family and on social media.

‘I’m stopping HIV’ – It Starts With Me Summer 2018 Campaign

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ISWM Summer 2018 campaign briefing

The summer phase of the It Starts With Me campaign will start on Monday 18 June 2018.

We have the tools to stop HIV

The focus of the summer campaign phase will be on raising awareness and promoting actions to take on the various ways to prevent HIV: testing, condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment.

The campaign aims to:

  • promote awareness and adoption of condom use, treatment as prevention, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV testing,
  • challenge HIV stigma by sharing real stories of people living with and affected by HIV who demonstrate how the different aspects of combination prevention  is stopping HIV,
  • encourage individuals to find the right options for themselves.

The campaign will be delivered mainly via online and print advertising.

Campaign briefing

If you would like to know more about this phase of the campaign please have a look at our Summer Campaign Briefing [PDF].

The briefing will provide you with:

  • A summary of the campaign activities.
  • How you can get involved.
  • What support we can provide to you to amplify the campaign in your area.
  • What combination prevention is and why it’s important.

New resources

We have created a number of new resources for the campaign including posters and leaflets. The look and feel of the campaign is bright, fun and summery. The resources feature individuals who are playing their part in stopping HIV by using the different prevention methods.

Order resources online now.

Coming soon: We will also be providing a social media pack with images, video and suggested social media posts to help you promote the summer campaign.

Remember to sign up to our newsletter to get the latest updates from HIV Prevention England.