Under a new expansion plan, 30 more A&Es will start testing for the infectious disease in hospital emergency departments (ED) via the revolutionary NHS Blood Borne Virus Opt-out Testing programme (BBV).
Under the programme, people visiting an ED are offered a discreet test which screens for the HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses when full bloods are taken. If the test comes back positive for the HIV, Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C viruses, the person is offered specialist support and a treatment plan is put in place for them.
The expansion means 89 major hospital emergency departments will routinely test anyone who has their blood taken in an ED located in English towns and cities with a high rate of HIV prevalence.
Health leaders expect the expanded network of A&E sites will enable up to 1,900 more cases of newly identified HIV or previously diagnosed cases not linked to care to be identified each year by the NHS.
Latest NHS data shows, over seven million tests have been carried out, finding over 7,300 cases of newly diagnosed Blood Borne Viruses. Including over 1,000 new diagnoses of HIV, over 4,600 new diagnoses of Hepatitis B and over 1,600 new diagnoses of Hepatitis C via the BBV programme between April 2022- January 2025.
Data also shows this testing linked to care almost 500 cases of HIV and Hepatitis C previously diagnosed but not in care, and linked to care over 3,000 cases of hepatitis B either newly identified or previously diagnosed but not in care via the BBV programme.
NHS leaders are investing £27 million to support the programme’s expansion this year. The NHS previously invested £20 million to implement routine HIV opt out testing within 34 hospital EDs in 2022.
The programme has been more likely to find people with HIV who live in the most deprived areas, and people of Black African ethnicity, a community which bears a disproportionate burden of HIV and late diagnosis.
