The Government has been accused of ‘not caring’ about HIV after denying people in England access to free self-testing kits.
Public Health England last year offered firms the chance to sell their self-testing kits to the NHS, but later withdrew the offer completely.
In a scathing attack on the move, the manufacturer of a type of testing kit branded it ‘disgraceful’, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘small-minded’.
BioSure begged Public Health England to reconsider its decision, saying the delay threatens to scupper targets to banish the virus.
The boss of the firm even claimed the UK is now lagging behind countries such as Kenya in tackling HIV.
BioSure begged Public Health England to reconsider its controversial decision, saying the delay threatens to scupper targets to banish the virus
BioSure’s chief executive Brigette Bard said: ‘Public Health England’s decision is disgraceful and they really have to reconsider their decision.
‘There should be no complacency in tackling HIV, especially when it is due to something like data collection. It’s discriminatory and small minded.
‘People deserve a choice and it was exactly the same patriarchal conversation about pregnancy tests 30 years ago.’
PHE told MailOnline it supports HIV self-testing, having awarded grants to projects that provide HIV-self testing kits for free.
A spokesperson said it would ‘continue to look at the best available evidence to achieve eliminating new HIV transmissions by 2030’.
Last spring, PHE invited firms making HIV self-testing kits to express their interest in pitching for a tender with a view of offering them on the NHS as part of a remote testing programme.
BioSure claims it made clear of its intentions to offer its tests, which give a result in 15 minutes, for a fraction of the £33.95 retail price.
However, while self-testing kits were mentioned in the initial tender brief they were removed from the final tender document announced by PHE three months later.
BioSure claims its offer of giving people the option to be tested privately was ignored, and fear the decision is stopping many from finding out if they have HIV.
PHE abandoned the tender entirely in December 2018. The reasons behind this decision are currently unknown.
In March, PHE announced it had launched a new three-year procurement process with a near-identical brief that only mentions self-sampling kits. It replaced the existing one, with the new deadline being in April 2022. Self-sampling kits are different to self-testing kits because they have to be sent off to be checked.
Ms Bard added: ‘This postponement now leaves the UK far behind other counties whose governments are actively increasing access to HIV self-testing.
‘Governments in South Africa, Kenya and Brazil are all investing in this technology, but it has been disregarded in the change-resistant UK.’
BioSure sells its self-testing kit for £33.99 on the high street. It told MailOnline the NHS could pay a ‘third’ of the price for its kits.
HIV tests are free on the NHS – but they often send out postal tests, which require being sent to a lab, meaning several days of waiting for a result.
Charities such as the Terrence Higgins Trust also offer them without charge to those deemed most at risk, such as gay and bisexual men.
Self-testing kits offer a result in a quarter of an hour and are discreet. Embarrassment of talking to a GP or health professional prevents many from being tested.
The National AIDS Trust claims that more than third of people living with HIV are diagnosed late, slashing their life expectancies.
The charity also warns that HIV patients who are diagnosed late are 11 times more likely to die in the first year after diagnosis.
The World Health Organization says self-testing kits is one of the key ways of ending the HIV/Aids epidemic.
BioSure’s test requires a finger prick sample of blood to detect the presence of HIV antibodies – proteins made by the body in response to foreign invaders.
Studies show the test is 99.7 per cent accurate, however, a negative result does not necessarily means someone is free of HIV.
It can take up to three months for someone to produce enough antibodies for the test to give a positive result.
The BioSURE test has been sold online in the UK since 2015, following fierce fights by sexual health charities and campaigners.
Charities estimate nearly 37million adults and children globally have HIV, including at least 100,000 in the UK.
HIV tests are free on the NHS – but they often send out postal tests, which require being sent to a lab, meaning several days of waiting for a result
While it is acknowledged HIV rates across the home nations are falling, charities estimate 8,000 people are still unaware they have the virus.
The virus progressively damages the cells in the immune system, weakening the body’s ability to fight infections.
Without treatment, this leads to AIDS – the collective name for a series of deadly infections which the weakened immune system cannot tackle.
HIV is now manageable but an early diagnosis is crucial, as it means patients can get patients started on antiretroviral treatment quicker.
Medical advances mean once a patient’s HIV is deemed undetectable, they can even have unprotected sex without fear of passing it on.
UNAIDS last year warned the fight in controlling AIDS was at a ‘precarious point’ and that the AIDS epidemic risks resurging and spiralling out of control.
HIV infections must be limited to 500,000 per year globally by 2020 to achieve the UN goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
But the 1.8million infections recorded in 2017 showed unless something ‘completely drastic’ happened, officials will remain far away from this target, the body said.
A PHE spokesperson said the self-sampling service it offers allows 40,000 people to get a free HIV in the privacy of their own home.
‘Self-sampling is a highly accurate method of testing for HIV which allows us to monitor rates of the infection and patterns of transmission,’ they said.
Ian Green, chief executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: ‘Offering a range of HIV testing options is an important way to ensure that more people test for HIV.
‘Around 8,000 people are living with HIV in the UK and don’t know they are, which is not only bad for their health but also means that HIV might be unwittingly passed on.
‘That’s why testing is crucial and there’s a number of ways in which people can now test.
‘Innovations in testing, including home testing kits and home sampling kits, offer people choice which is vital to breakdown barriers to testing.’