This World Aids Day gives us an important opportunity to celebrate the remarkable advances we have made in the treatment of HIV, but also to reflect on how much more we should be doing to prevent it in the first place.

Despite the improvements in how we treat HIV, I am deeply concerned that the work to prevent it is not keeping up. New figures show that people being diagnosed with HIV has for the first time reached over 100,000 people a year and a quarter of those are unaware they have it. This should not be happening more than 25 years after the United Kingdom’s first public health campaign on HIV.

This is a serious public health challenge and one that we need government at all levels to be taking seriously. We need to address the stigma surrounding HIV so that young people feel able to talk about it and ask questions without fear. Labour’s commitment to making sexual and relationships education compulsory in every school will be critical in achieving this.

One of the biggest challenges today relating to HIV is late diagnosis. About half of all people diagnosed with HIV last year were diagnosed ‘late’, after the point at which they should have started treatment. My constituency in Liverpool has a 47 per cent late diagnosis rate. This is just not good enough. It means people are not getting the crucial treatment they need and may not be taking precautions to avoid passing their infection on to others.

Reducing undiagnosed and late-diagnosed HIV must be a national priority. That requires tackling stigma around HIV testing and offering tests more widely. We know it is possible. Some of the best programmes around the country already show us what can be achieved when the will is there.

Along with tackling stigma and raising awareness, if we are to effectively tackle HIV, we must ensure that the progress that has been made by HIV services is not put at risk. Under this Tory-led government’s unwanted reorganisation of the NHS, sexual health services have become fragmented and disjointed.

Responsibility for HIV services is now split, with NHS England in charge of HIV and Aids treatment and local authorities commissioning testing and prevention. These reforms are a threat to the joined-up approach we know works best. Labour’s plan to bring together physical health, mental health and social care into a single, integrated service will help connect services and improve care for patients.

I am very proud to support World Aids Day to ensure we reduce undiagnosed and late-diagnosed HIV, support those living with HIV today, commemorate those who have lost their lives, and send a clear message – prevention is always better than cure.

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Luciana Berger MP is shadow minister for public health. She tweets @lucianaberger

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Photo: Auntie P