Terrence Higgins Trust is launching a new programme to make HIV self-testing kits free to all gay and bisexual men, as well as trans women.
The self-testing kits give a result in under 15 minutes, using just a small blood sample from a finger prick.
The kits are also available to anyone in the UK who identifies as Black African.
We tried out the HIV self-testing kit live on Facebook with Terrence Higgins Trust’s Liam Beattie at PinkNews’ London office.
Beattie told PinkNews: “If the result does come back as positive, I appreciate that for a lot of people that is a massive change in their lives, but do go to a clinic.
“It’s not something to be panicking about, we have much better treatment options available now.
“People who are living with HIV – some studies have suggested – will actually have a longer life span because they’re interacting more regularly with health services.
“Within the LGBT community, we see on dating apps people use really unhelpful terminologies.
“We need to educate ourselves and know about the reality of the virus.
“It’s really easy to get tested and even if the result comes back negative, that shouldn’t be the end – you should be accessing testing regularly.
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