RESIDENTS are being encouraged to order a HIV home-sampling test kit as part of National HIV Testing Week this week.

Slough residents who are at at higher risk of HIV are being encouraged to use the home testing kit which is a new national service and involves testing for HIV by providing a pin-prick of blood to get a result.

There are currently just over 330 people diagnosed with HIV in Slough and with it estimated that nationally around a quarter of people living with HIV do not know they have it, there could be another 111 people in Slough who are living with undiagnosed HIV.

To get hold of the free kit either; request it online from www.freetesting.hiv; visit your GP; request a test from Thames Valley Positive Support www.tvps.org.uk/time-to-test; or go to an open access sexual health clinic - the Garden Clinic in Slough provides free, confidential HIV testing every week day and can always do urgent tests for patients with worries or anxieties.

And from 8.30am to 12.30pm on Thursday, the clinic will be offering quick pin-prick HIV tests with results available in 20 minutes.

In Berkshire around half of all people diagnosed with HIV in 2013 were diagnosed at a late stage of infection. This can be reduced through increased HIV testing.

Getting this treatment as early as possible means people living with HIV have the best chance to lead a healthy life.

HIV infection in the UK continues to disproportionately affect men who have sex with men (MSM) and people of black African origin.

Dr Matthew Hamill, sexual health and HIV consultant at the Garden Clinic in Slough, said: “HIV treatment and care has progressed so far in the last decade that people accessing treatment and care can expect a near-normal life expectancy.

“All patients of every background are welcome to come to the Garden Clinic to test for HIV and other infections."