Prince Harry attends opening of Terrence Higgins Trust’s HIV pop-up shop
By Joshua Haigh
Prince Harry attended the opening of Terrence Higgins Trust’s HIV self test pop-up shop in Hackney today (November 15) to launch HIV Testing Week (November 18-24).
To help raise awareness of #HIVTestingWeek, The Prince met with Andrew Bates, a man who was diagnosed with HIV in 2015, who shared his story and talked about the importance of testing. He also met with reporter Yvette Twagiramariya, who took a live HIV test to show how the self tests work.
Before leaving the pop-up, the royal sat down with local residents and gave them all a self test kit to take home.
Prince Harry has been a longtime supporter of charities, and has continued his mother’s legacy by helping to fight the spread and stigma surrounding HIV. Last year he even recorded a Facebook live video of him getting a HIV test alongside pop star Rihanna.
His visit comes after new figures from Public Health England on HIV that reveal the drive to increase HIV testing is having an impact. Data reveals there’s been a 21.8% drop in the number of people who are undiagnosed and don’t know they’re living with HIV.
Despite this, there are still over 10,000 people in England who are currently unaware that they’re living with HIV.
Terrence Higgins Trust CEO Ian Green said: “Incredible progress has been made to reduce HIV transmission and late diagnoses, and support people living with HIV, which would have been unimaginable even three or four years ago.
“However, we must not be complacent, and now this is the time to double up on efforts and investment to ensure we can end all new cases of HIV in the UK and support people living with HIV to enjoy healthy, long lives.”
He adds: “There is also still so much work to do to end the stigma that faces people living with HIV in the UK.”
You can find out more about National HIV Testing Week, which runs from 18-24 November by visiting www.itstartswithme.org.uk.
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