RESIDENTS are being urged to get tested regularly for HIV as World AIDS Day is marked on Sunday, December 1.

While HIV testing in the south west overall increased in 2023 compared to 2022 (73,552 in 2022 to 81,813 in 2023) it remains lower than before the Covid pandemic, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) South West said.

Data shows the number of people in the BCP diagnosed with HIV rose from 28 in 2022 to 48 in 2023. 

In Dorset, this increased from seven to 18 during the same period. 

Mark McNally, south west sexual health facilitator at UKHSA, said: “HIV can affect anyone, no matter your gender or sexual orientation, so please get regularly tested and use condoms to protect you and your partners’ health.

“A HIV test is free and provides access to HIV PrEP if needed. If you do test positive, treatment is so effective that you can expect to live a long healthy life and you won’t pass HIV on to partners.”

The agency said testing in sexual health clinics in the south west has increased by 18 per cent since 2019 in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

However, testing has fallen in heterosexual men by 65 per cent (from 33,637 in 2019 to 11,612 in 2023) and in heterosexual and bisexual women by 25 per cent (from 48,020 in 2019 to 35,930 in 2023).

Overall, the number of HIV diagnoses first made in the south west has doubled from 221 in 2022 to 447 in 2023.

UKHSA is working with partners to further explore the reasons for this rise in new diagnoses.