HIV warning to older women as infections increase

Women aged in their 50s and 60s have been urged to practise safe sex after a rise in new cases of HIV in heterosexual groups.

As World Aids Day is marked, campaigners say women in this age group could be at greater risk of catching the virus because some are not using condoms.

Blue Sky Trust, a sexual health charity working across north-east England and Cumbria, says it is seeing increasing numbers of older women coming forward for support, while a parliamentary committee noted a rise in women across all age groups being infected through sex with men.

Trust members have also been taking to social media to tackle misinformation and raise awareness about living safely with HIV.

A recent report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee described the increase in the number of heterosexual women of all ages contracting the disease as "alarming".

The committee said, compared with 2019, new diagnoses in 2024 were 26% higher in women exposed through sex with men.

It recommended the "expansion of the opt-out testing programme" at facilities such as women's health hubs, as well as "locally-led campaigns" targeting at-risk groups which also included "Black African and Asian communities".

Julieanne Mitchell, from Blue Sky Trust, said women who are perimenopausal or menopausal are another at risk group because they "think they can't get pregnant" and have unprotected sex.

She urged them to think about sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV, and to use condoms.

Treatments for HIV mean those with the virus can lead a healthy, normal life, unlike in the 1980s and 90s when contracting it was often fatal.

Drugs suppress the virus and prevent it being passed on in what is known as U=U, meaning undetectable = untransmissible.

But the Blue Sky Trust said the stigma around the disease persists and it has heard of cases where people think HIV can be picked up from sharing cutlery or a toilet seat.

In reality, it is usually passed on through unprotected sex.

Nigel Bullock, a member of the Newcastle-based trust, has been posting on social media to counter misinformation about the virus and said he was happily surprised by the response.

"I sat and did a great big post at eight o'clock on a Saturday night and posted all over Facebook, all over Instagram.

"I thought I'll check them tomorrow morning and then deal with whatever comes back.

"To my amazement, there was no hate, there was no negative, there was nobody saying anything that made me feel awful.

"It was just really positive, people learning, people asking questions."