NCIC urges people to get tested for HIV

National HIV Testing Week is returning for 2025 and the North Cumbrian Integrated Care Trust is urging everyone who feels they may be at risk of catching it to get tested.

Testing is free and confidential. It’s the only way to know if you have HIV and people can now live with HIV for a long time without any symptoms.

To push their drive for more testing, NCIC commandeered a bus this week offering full sexual health screening including HIV testing.

Professor Matt Phillips, Deputy Medical Director and Sexual Health Consultant, is reminding the public that clinics are available across the county where people can get tested and that the treatments are now effective.

Professor Phillips, who is also the President for the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), said: "It is concerning that we are now seeing greater health inequalities and higher numbers of infections in ethnic minority groups.

"Today, many scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment and we understand so much more about the condition.

"Testing and treating is the key to ending HIV transmissions. Effective treatment helps people to live long, healthy lives with HIV and means they can’t pass the virus on.

"People can also use Pre exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) if they are at higher risk of HIV to protect themselves from catching the virus. We are able to offer this in our clinics across Cumbria.

"We are keen to highlight the variety of different ways that people can now get tested including free and confidential HIV tests from sexual health clinics charity testing services, many GP surgeries, pharmacies or online for self-testing at home."

During National HIV Testing Week, you can order a free self-test, which you take yourself to get a result in just 15 minutes, or a postal test where you take a sample yourself and send it off to a lab who will then contact you with your result.

If you are HIV negative, you can still use protection such as PrEP or condoms to stay negative. If you are HIV positive, you can go on treatment and live a long and healthy life - people on effective HIV treatment can’t pass it on to partners.

The sooner you know your HIV status, the sooner you can get on treatment if needed to stay healthy and avoid passing the virus on to anyone else.

The Trust has clinics in Carlisle, Workington, Whitehaven, Kendal and Barrow.

Rapid HIV testing is also available in some pharmacies in Cumbria. The test is free, simple and confidential. You’ll receive your result in around 15 minutes.