As an interviewee in The World Next Door says, UK Africans may accept the need for HIV prevention advice, they just don’t want to be targeted for it.

The estimated proportion of people with HIV among the UK’s African community is similar to that amongst gay men. And the proportion who become infected in the UK appears to be rising. Clearly, therefore, there’s a need.

But, as the widely different portrayals of Africans in the national campaigns conducted thus far shows, deciding exactly what they need to know and how to reach them is a very different thing. Portrayals in the posters and leaflets have swung from people who looked like office workers, through grittier images, which even included a bit of man-on-man action, to a sitcom Peckham dad.

‘UK Africans’ is an impossibly broad group of people to engage using one series of posters. Mass-media campaigns grabbing their attention may be a waste of money.

This May, the British National Party (BNP) misused statistics to ‘prove’ that the UK’s HIV problem largely results from African immigration. Individually, someone may be extremely likely, or not likely at all, to have HIV and because of stigma may be sensitive to messages that imply that they do.

Our numerous local African organisations, however, are having success in contacting their local community. It’s on the street, in clubs, shops and churches, that people will be reached and educated.

We also celebrate some extremely good news. In Combinations and Conundrums, while stressing the complexity of hepatitis C therapies, we mark recent trials’ successes: at least 50% more people cured in half the time, including many who had failed therapy before.

In our news section we celebrate a couple of historic decisions (or near-decisions: both could still be reversed).

One is the decriminalisation of gay sex in India. The importance of this can’t be overstated; it overturns a 150-year-old law that has been used as the template for similar anti-sodomy statutes in several ex-British colonies. Furthermore, the Delhi High Court based its decision on a piece of judicial bedrock: its country’s own constitution. Legislating against gay men, it said, violates their rights to liberty and privacy. This sets the stage for challenges in other countries.

The other is the proposed ending of the travel ban on HIV-positive people to the USA. This is significant because the US Health Department went further than expected and essentially declared that HIV-positive visitors and immigrants were not a significant threat to public health. This could shame the countries that still bar travellers with HIV, and serve as additional ammo against the likes of the BNP.

The next issue of HTU will come out in September as we now have a pause for the NAM team to attend the IAS conference. Enjoy your summer and if you missed sponsoring our team in the Crusaid Walk for Life, don’t forget that our intrepid NAMmers will also be entering the London Triathlon on 1 August to raise money for HIV. Just go to www.justgiving.com and search for NAM.