AIDS

During the 1980s and 1990s, Edinburgh and the Lothians suffered significantly high rates of HIV infections, considered to be the result of a high proportion of intravenous drug users sharing injecting equipment. This young, sexually active cohort had the potential to pose a threat to the wider population via heterosexual spread, and hence measures were required to prevent, where possible, a second wave of the epidemic.

This story is of particular interest and importance to Edinburgh and Scottish medicine. It describes the events in one general medical practice in Edinburgh, the Muirhouse Medical Group, and their impact and relationship to the AIDS pandemic. For many, the origin of HIV in the UK is now history. Since the introduction of HIV/AIDS into the intravenous illegal drug using community, much has changed but problems remain that should concern policy makers and clinicians.

Introduction The 2008 UK National Guidelines for HIV testing were designed in order to decrease the proportion of people living with undiagnosed HIV infection.

Aims Two audits were conducted. The aim of Audit 1 was to determine the proportion of current medical inpatients with an indicator condition that had been tested for HIV. Audit 2 aimed to identify missed opportunities for testing prior to diagnosis among newly diagnosed individuals with HIV.