‘When I heard I had HIV I thought of the tombstone advert from the 1980s’

Patient calls for better education and an end to the stigma around the disease as cases surge among heterosexual men

- HOLLY EVANS

HIV diagnoses among heterosexual men have surged in England, with a new survey finding that 73 per cent of men have never been tested for the disease.

The UK Health Security Agency has warned that diagnoses among this category have increased by over a third in recent years while knowledge of the illness remains low, with one patient believing he would die upon being told he had contracted the disease. For Allan Batcock, his diagnosis in 2010 came through a routine STI test upon entering a new relationship, after previously having a few one-night stands after his marriage ended.

“When I got the results it really knocked my head off, and I went back to the only information I knew about HIV, and that was the black tombstone advert from the 1980s,” he told The Independent. “I just thought I was going to die.”