Blood Borne Viruses (BBV)
Contact drugsandstuff.co.uk if you'd like to have training. We offer training on HIV and hepatitis.
HIV
We can provide a specially produced cd-rom covering: HIV basics, HIV@work, testing issues, confidentiality, needles and syringes, safer sex, children & families, HIV news, and links. We give this cd-rom to each participant as part of the HIV training we provide. We can develop a version tailored to your own area, e.g. listing local services, to give to participants on your own training. Please contact us if you want to talk about HIV training or the HIV cd-rom.
1 December every year is World AIDS Day.
2008 theme - RESPECT & PROTECT. Two straplines accompany the theme: 'Together we can stop the spread of HIV' and 'Together we can end HIV prejudice'. The theme is inclusive and highlights the responsibility everyone has to transform attitudes to HIV and encourage actions that stop its spread. The World AIDS Day 2008 website is www.worldAIDSday.org
If you'd like help arranging HIV training or briefings linked to World AIDS Day, please get in touch.
Listed below are examples of some of the HIV training courses that we can offer:
- HIV awareness
- Working with positive people
- Coming to terms with an HIV Diagnosis
- Managing a Chronic Condition & Living with HIV
- Current health needs of people with HIV
- Gay Men & HIV
- Sex and living with HIV: To tell or not to tell
- Domiciliary Care & HIV
- Parenting Issues & HIV
- Working with Children & Young People Affected by HIV
- Working with Families Affected by HIV
- 'To Test Or Not To Test - that is the Question' (HIV Testing)
- Training the Trainers
- HIV & the Workplace
- Workplace Employment Policy & Practice
- 'Leading the way: being HIV proactive' - course for managers and unions reps.
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B Awareness Week (28th September–3rd October)
Gay men in London are being encouraged to protect themselves against Hepatitis B as part of Hepatitis B Awareness Week, from 28 September to 3 October.
FIVE FACTS ABOUT HEPATITIS B THAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW...
1. Hepatitis B is 100 times more infectious than HIV.
2. By the age of 35, one in three gay men in London will have had Hepatitis B.
3. The virus can live in dried blood so it can be spread by using other people’s sex toys, toothbrushes and razors.
4. About 1 in 10 infected people will go on to develop long-term liver problems such as cirrhosis and 1 in 100 will actually die as a result of Hepatitis B.
5. Although it is preventable by vaccine, 50% of gay men in London are still not vaccinated against Hepatitis B.
The above is part of Hepatitis B Awareness Week (28th September–3rd October). The campaign aims to highlight how easy it is to prevent the disease by vaccination. The vaccination is free, quick, straightforward and available without an appointment at most STI clinics.
Hepatitis ABC
19th May 2009 World Hepatitis Day.
World Hepatitis Day was launched in 2008 in response to the concern that chronic viral hepatitis has nowhere near the level of awareness nor the political will to tackle it that is seen in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Because shockingly one in 12 people worldwide are living with either chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C. While this is far higher than the prevalence of HIV or any cancer, awareness is inexplicably low and the majority of those infected are unaware.
The World Hepatitis Day website is www.aminumber12.org/
We provide a number of hepatitis related training courses, e.g. Hepatitis ABC
Please contact us if you want to talk about hepatitis training or resource development.
Guidance for clinical health care workers: protection against infection with blood-borne viruses
Recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on AIDS and the Advisory Group on Hepatitis
Department of Health
This booklet contains guidance on measures to protect clinical health care workers (HCWs) against occupational infection with blood-borne viruses (BBVs). It is based on the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on AIDS and the Advisory Group on Hepatitis. It draws also on work done by the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens and the Microbiology Advisory Committee.
The booklet may also be used as a basis for drawing up guidelines for those in allied occupations, e.g. persons dealing with contaminated equipment, who may be exposed occupationally to a risk of BBV infection. Some advice is given on the disposal of clinical waste, and the labelling and transport of specimens which have implications for the safety of others. Adherence to the recommendations will also provide protection from BBV infection to patients and other persons present in the health care setting.
This document covers known BBVs including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). There are practical advantages in adopting common infection control policies to prevent the transmission of BBVs, and this is reflected in the guidance.
Link to Department of Health site
