Health insurance news - More lives could be saved by 'earlier diagnosis' in HIV cases

An increasing number of health insurance customers that are diagnosed with HIV could have their lives saved by earlier diagnosis, an expert has claimed.

According to head of public affairs for the Terrence Higgins Trust Catherine Murphy, there has been a large decrease in the number of aids-related deaths due to successful treatment in the UK.

Ms Murphy said the Terrence Higgins Trust is trying to make HIV testing a far less "scary" prospect so that people can accept it as part of their healthcare like any other blood test.

"A quarter of people who die with Aids-related illnesses in the UK could have been avoided if they had been diagnosed earlier," she added.

The Terrence Higgins Trust is currently working towards making HIV testing more widely available and making it much more accessible for people in the UK.

Last month, a report published in the British Medical Journal suggested that medical insurance customers in the UK that are diagnosed with HIV are living up to 15 years longer than they were just a decade ago.