Chris O’Connor
Late Diagnosis will Count Quit Smoking and Get Support Lung cancer in people living with HIV is overwhelmingly due to smoking, with no evidence that an HIV diagnosis or low CD4 count is associated with lung cancer, researchers from the Swiss cohort study reported in the British Journal Of Cancer. With HIV positive people more likely to be smokers than the rest of the population, the consequences of smoking have led to the development of a range of services targeted at supporting people in quitting. Another Swiss study (HIV Medicine, November 2011, Huber B) looked at a smoking cessation course in a Zurich HIV clinic. A half days training course was run for medics at the clinic, and smoking cessation support was integrated into routine clinic appointments. The 1700 Zurich patients were compared to the rest of the Swiss HIV Cohort of 11,000 patients. In 2000 when the study started, 64% of patients in Zurich smoked - this had fallen by 23% in 2010. The investigators said that the Zurich clinic patients were 25% more likely to stop than the other clinics where there was no such programme. In London the gay men’s health charity, GMFA are running stop smoking courses, which they claim gave a success rate of 75% compared to the 50% quitting rate of NHS smoking cessation courses. Gay men have much higher smoking rates than their straight counterparts, say GMFA; 40% of gay men smoke (60% among 25-34 year olds) way above the national average of 22%. Two courses run from GMFA in Old Street for seven weeks, one night a week; starting 21st February and the 1st of March. To book a place call 0207 738 3712 or see www.gmfa.org.uk/stopsmoking 10 Winter 2012
The indicators by which the reformed NHS public health system will be measured, will include the rates of late HIV diagnosis, (defined as a CD4 cell count below 350), say the UK government. Campaigners say the measure is vital to expand HIV testing initiatives and to reduce late HIV diagnosis. “We now need local authorities and the local NHS to respond to this indicator,’ says Deborah Jack of the National Aids Trust, adding, ‘they need to plan and invest to improve testing uptake.’ While the government has moved away from setting targets, 66 ‘indicators’ have been set to be monitored by local authorities, each should contribute to ‘outcomes’ concerning life expectancy and health inequalities. Indicators include, teenage pregnancy rates, completion of TB treatment and deaths from liver disease.
Supermarket Pay Out
An employee of Tesco who claimed unfair dismissal because of his HIV status has been awarded £32,000 in compensation. The young man was employed as a security guard in a Tesco store in Dublin. The supermarket claimed that the man had consumed a bottle of Ribena and a chocolate biscuit without paying. The man claimed an honest mistake, and had no breaches of disciple or complaints during his employment. The employment tribunal also found there had been breaches in the dismissal procedure. During the hearing the man said he thought there was a link between his HIV status - which he had disclosed to a Tesco employee relations officer – and his dismissal. He felt he was being treated differently and punished disproportionately. In the UK people living with HIV are protected under The Equality Act 2010, which incorporates the protections of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. For more info on employment rights and HIV see: www.nat.org.uk www.baseline-hiv.co.uk