ALMOST 200 people living in Thurrock have HIV.

The stats, published by Public Health England, are being tackled by Thurrock Council, in the run up to World AIDS Day on Sunday, December 1, which is taking part in national HIV Testing Week, between November 22 and 29.

The number of HIV tests carried out in Thurrock has increased every year since 2009 but not every eligible person took up the offer, with more than 53 per cent presenting at a later stage of their infection when an earlier diagnosis could have led to a normal lifespan.

Councillor Barbara Rice, portfolio holder for health said raising awareness of the benefits of testing was vital.

“This is a great opportunity to alert people to the benefits of HIV testing, particularly for people who are unaware of their infection and are likely to be those most at risk of transmitting HIV to others.

“We must reduce the number of undiagnosed HIV infections through encouraging earlier and more frequent HIV testing, especially by those most at-risk.”

Thurrock Council is responsible for ensuring residents can access sexual health services, and commissions sexual health services from North East London NHS Foundation Trust, including the GUM Clinic at Orsett Hospital, as well as sexual health services available through GPs.

The Terence Higgins Trust has teamed up to encourage gay men and African people in particular, to take an HIV test.

Dr Pro Mallik, NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group’s GP lead for Health and Wellbeing, added: “We hope the number of late diagnoses is reduced by encouraging more people to go for an HIV test, use condoms and adopt other behaviours to lower the risk of getting HIV.

“As a GP I encourage those people who are at risk to get tested regularly as early diagnoses is the key to a better outcome and it reduces the risk of it being passed on to other people.”