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IF YOU BUY coffee in a Dublin café this week you might notice a sleeve with a difference on your cup.
Some 10,000 sleeves promoting HIV testing are set to be distributed to coffee shops throughout the city as part of the European HIV and Hepatitis Testing Week, which runs from 20-27 November.
The UCD HIV Molecular Research Group (HMRG) and HIV Ireland have designed the sleeves to encourage people in Dublin to get a HIV test.
To date in 2015 in Ireland, 411 new HIV infections have been detected – in comparison to a total of 377 in 2014. This equates to a 9% increase in new infections so far this year compared to all of last year.
Dr Patrick Mallon, head of UCD HIV HMRG, said: “Innovative health promotion campaigns such as this one which the UCD HIV Molecular Research Group is rolling out in partnership with HIV Ireland are designed to reiterate the importance of HIV testing.”
Rapid testing
The Department of Health has recently provided funding to the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) for a national rapid HIV testing pilot study.
A ‘rapid’ test involves a fingertip prick (or sometimes an oral swab), where a specimen is applied to the test kit. The result is available within about 20 minutes.
If there is a reactive result, a blood sample is taken and sent to the laboratory for a confirmatory test.
In Ireland, the average age at diagnosis is 33 years, with 49% of new diagnoses reported in men who have sex with men.
Information about free HIV and STI testing centres throughout the country is available here.
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I’m voting Sinn Féin. And just to debunk the myth about SF voters, I started work at 6am.
@Ebeneezer Goode: not many thumbs up yet Eb, you’re mates will boost the thumbs in about 6 hours, don’t worry!
@Wheresmyjumper: you sound desperate, don’t panic FFG are sinking and you can’t do anything
@Ebeneezer Goode: I’m going to give them a vote this time too. I start at 9 but get up at 6.20 to commute. I would love a family sized apartment near the city instead of a house in the suburbs so I had more free time. I wish our city was planned like a real city.
@Ebeneezer Goode: started work at 6am and commenting on the journal by 6:51am. Your productivity levels must through the roof……
@Ebeneezer Goode: me to on botha counts. I’m voting Sinn Feinn because I think we will get a big global shock financially that will damage our economy. If and when that happens I want a party in government that will prioritise the protection of our society over the gains of global market gamblers.
Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour & The Greens sold us all out for higher interests.
The real shadowy figures.
Never again should we have people in power who will let the destruction that was unfolded on people’s lives here happen while at the same time paying out on market gambling debts of the mega rich.
@Ebeneezer Goode: Same , though I started work at 8am, I had to leave home at 5am. This is because despite the fact I have a well paid job, due to the housing issues FF and FG have done nothing about for my entire lifetime I can not afford to live in Dublin even though I work here… At this stage I will take any change from being governed by FF/FG!
@Ebeneezer Goode: Im voting SF and never got job seeker benefit in my life, the only party who acknowledges low earners….
I’m voting for change .
I’m voting SF.
@Willy Mc Entire: we know. You keep saying. Feel free to explain why they’d change anything.
@Willy Mc Entire:
we know. Is it shinnerbot policy to post this on every article… if you repeat it at nauseam you will get traction and brainwash a few dopes.
Hopefully they pay you well for it, otherwise please get a life and stop posting the same thing over and over. Anyone with a brain will not be influenced by this nonsense.
@Goban Saor: probably because they are not a party of pocket stuffing parasites like FFG are?
@Gus Sheridan: just beholden to a bunch of ex-terrorists and criminals from Belfast.
All politicians want is your vote and when they get in they will do sweet f all for you. They are all the same
@David O Brien: exactly I don’t know why people get so worked up about voting for people who only pretend to care for them
I’m more worried about how much they’ve spent of leaflets. I can hardly open the front door some evenings with the amount of rubbish that has accumulated during the day.
@Σ ΛΛ ΛΛ Θ: collect all the leaflets for each party
Separate them and address them to the parties concerned in an envelope
Post it without any stamp
Let them pay the postage!
If enough people do the same it might just sink in we don’t want their litter
Michael Healy Rae is brilliant. I’d vote for him if I could.
@John Considine: why can’t you…
@John Considine: He’s good entertainment value, a bit like Willie O’Dea. But that’s about as far as it goes.
Any one see michael healy rae on the news last night with the young convicted thug behind him.
I’m voting for Sinn Fein. 220 bucks a week on the dole, how am i suppose to survive on that. I want those on the high income to pay more tax to support people like us who don’t work.
@Daithi De Roiste: you sad person….
@Peter donnelly: I’m very sad, and hungry!
I don’t even particularly think their candidate in my constituency is any good, but nearly sure that SF will get my No1.
If you see an advert by FF/FG on Facebook just report it as “misleading/scam” and if enough do it, they will remove it !
I would genuinely be worried about my job if sinn fein got in. I work in a multinational and if sinn fein got in they would tax them much higher.
Not happy with ff and fg but sinn fein are too extreme.
have your say