In the run up to World AIDS Day, December 1st, sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust is launching the first campaign to educate people from African communities about PEP (post exposure prophylaxis). PEP is a course of anti-HIV medication which can stop HIV if taken within 72 hours of infection. The campaign is supported by Barclays. 

Focus groups to test awareness have shown that very few Africans living in the UK are aware of PEP or how to access the treatment.

African communities in the UK are disproportionately affected by sexual ill-health and face the biggest increase in new HIV diagnoses. Nearly 3,000 (2981) black Africans were diagnosed with HIV in England in 2005, compared to 2,261 white people.  And numbers diagnoses of HIV transmitted through heterosexual sex are much higher among African communities than among white people. But despite being at much higher risk of HIV, very few Africans know about PEP. 

As part of the African PEP campaign the charity will run a number of PEP awareness training courses targeting health promoters working with African communities, starting in November 2006.

 The work will also be supported by a range of health promotion materials, including a leaflet, posters and the recent guidelines for doctors prescribing PEP produced by BASHH (the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV). The charity has also produced other leaflets for African communities on 'HIV & Safer Sex for African Communities', 'Condoms', 'HIV testing for African Communities', and 'Sexual Health Clinics for African Communities'.

 For more information on PEP please visit www.tht.org.uk/pep or call the Terrence Higgins Trust helpline, THT Direct on 0800 12 21 200.

If you work in African health promotion and would like to book a training course or order campaign materials please contact James Glavin at Terrence Higgins Trust on 020 7812 1791 or email: james.glavin@tht.org.uk.

Ends

 For more information please contact the Terrence Higgins Trust Press Office on 020 7812 1623.

 Notes to Editors

• The new leaflet on PEP for African communities is available from www.tht.org.uk/publications or by clicking on the link below:
  http://www.tht.org.uk/informationresources/publications/?pubId=17311
  
  
• The BASSH Guidelines for doctors prescribing PEP are available at http://www.pep.chapsonline.org.uk/health_pros.htm
  Terrence Higgins Trust is the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity, providing a wide range of services to over 50,000 people a year.  The charity also campaigns and lobbies for greater political and public understanding of the personal, social and medical impact of HIV and sexual health.
  About Barclays
  
  
• Barclays runs one of the most comprehensive business-led programmes combating HIV/Aids in Africa, which is home to almost two-thirds of the globe’s HIV infected population. The programme includes free anti-retrovirals for staff and their families, and community based education.
  
  
• At Barclays we're really proud of our leading community investment programme and are taking our responsibilities seriously - investing £39.1 million in 2005.
  
  
• We're focusing our support in the areas where we can use our knowledge and expertise to make the biggest difference to key social issues. In the UK, this includes programmes about money education, debt advice, financial inclusion and getting people into work.
  
  
• We also strive to strengthen the local communities in which we live and work, and are investing £30 million over three years in grassroots sport through Barclays Spaces for Sports.
  
  
• It's important to us that we encourage and enable our people to get involved in the causes that they care about most. More than 26,000 Barclays employees received direct support for their volunteering and fundraising last year, to the benefit of more than 7,500 charities and community groups. We're delighted and humbled by their fantastic achievements.
  
  
• For further information about the Barclays Community Investment Programme please visit www.barclays.com/community