London-based digital health publisher Streaming Well is collaborating with HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust to help educate young British people about the disease.
An online educational video series has been launched in order to improve knowledge among young people about the transmission of HIV.
The short films provide information about how to prevent transmission, as well as attempting to dispel some of the myths around the spreading of the virus, while providing advice on getting tested.
“Thirty years on from the start of the epidemic, public understanding of HIV has dropped to a worrying level,” said Michael Brady, medical director, Terrence Higgins Trust.
“Given that the last national HIV awareness campaign in the country was 25 years ago, it’s unsurprising that many young people struggle with even the basic facts.
“However, it is important that people of all ages realise that nobody is immune from infection. We all have a responsibility to get our understanding of the virus up to a basic level, and to know how to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe,” he said.
In the UK, the rate of new HIV cases each year has nearly doubled over the last decade, while the National AIDS Trust (NAT) has reported a general decline in the public’s awareness of how the virus is transmitted.
During a 2011 survey, the NAT found that 30 per cent of people in Britain could not correctly identify, from a list of potential causes, all the ways HIV is and is not transmitted. One in five people failed to identify sex without a condom between a man and a woman as a potential cause of the spread of the infection.
This news coincides with a report published by HIV/AIDS advocacy group ONE, which warned that efforts to control the disease will require extra investment.