Sir Elton John is heading to Parliament to urge ministers to do more to hit a 2030 target of eliminating new HIV cases in England, the BBC has learned.
The rock legend will address MPs at a meeting on Wednesday evening.
It comes as more than 580 previously undiagnosed cases have been identified by a pioneering new testing scheme.
Under the scheme, anyone having a blood test in selected hospital A&E units has also been tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, unless they opted out.
According to NHS figures seen by the BBC, the “opt-out testing” pilot project has identified more than 3,500 cases of the three bloodborne infections since April 2022, including more than 580 HIV cases.
The trials have been taking place in 33 hospitals in London, Greater Manchester, Sussex and Blackpool, where prevalence is classed by the NHS as “very high”.
“I got a phone call two days after being in A&E,” he says, “just saying to me we’ve got some concerns about a blood test that was done at the time. They asked me to come in and do some further tests.
“I hadn’t realised about the opt-out testing at the time, so I wasn’t expecting a phone call from a health clinic. I thought it was about a survey or something about my experience in A&E.”
After a two-week wait, Sam was diagnosed with HIV.
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