Receiving and managing the delivery of a positive HIV result can be daunting.

Sexual health services can support you with any new diagnoses including rapid referral in to your local clinic for assessment, discussion and confirmation of the result.

Clinicians seeking advice, or wishing to refer or discuss any HIV queries or concerns, can contact the services by telephone:
Exeter – 01392 284966
Barnstaple– 01271 341562
Torbay – 01803 656500

Despite medical advances ensuring people living with HIV can experience long and healthy lives, many still experience stigma in their daily lives and in some healthcare settings – and therefore some choose not to disclose their status widely, or at all.

This is their right. However, we do strongly encourage those we look after to disclose to their GP for safety reasons (e.g. drug interactions, awareness of appropriate differentials)

Please always take care with information about someone’s HIV status and only share it with other colleagues, via referrals etc. – if you have sought their consent to do so.

HIV-drug interactions website is a constantly updated website. Any potentially concerning interactions (yellow, orange, red) can be discussed or clarified by contacting your local service.

Entering prescribed HIV therapy on to your electronic systems can also help to reduce the risk of interactions via built-in interaction checkers.

U=U Stands for Undetectable = Untransmittable and means that people who don’t have detectable virus in their bloodstream can’t pass on HIV to their sexual partners

This is one of the most significant statements in the history of HIV research. It is based on large and well conducted observational cohort studies and is central to providing holistic and positive sexual health advice for PLWH.

In the long-term we would also aspire that the statement also drives a reduction in HIV-associated stigma.