Dudley MP Ian Austin has pledged his support for Halve It, a national campaign that aims to halve late diagnosis and undiagnosed HIV in the UK by 2015.

Austin met with key members of the campaign including charity workers, leading clinicians and patient representatives at a World AIDS Day event in Parliament.

The Halve It campaign is working to introduce new policies and better practices to bring down the proportion of people with HIV that are undiagnosed or are diagnosed late.

According to Public Health England data released last week, an estimated 98,400 people were living with HIV in the UK in 2012. The overall prevalence was 1.5 per 1,000 population, and an estimated 21,900 people living with HIV in 2012 were unaware of their infection.

Ian Austin MP said:

“I am delighted to support Halve It’s campaign to get more people with HIV diagnosed as early as possible.

“I know from the brilliant work of local charity Summit House Support, led by Chief Executive Suzanne Callen, that early diagnosis is hugely important.”