A HIV campaigner believes testing for the disease must become a routine part of medical care to reduce the number of new cases.

Adrienne Seed, 61, from Blackburn, was diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) 10 years ago.

HIV infects and gradually destroys cells in the body which combat infections, leaving sufferers more susceptible to diseases.

Without treatment, the immune system will become too weak to fight off illness and a person with HIV may develop rare infections or cancers.

When these are particularly serious, they are said to have AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

As co-founder and chairman of East Lancashire’s HIV and AIDS support network, Thrivine, Adrienne helps people living with or affected by the disease.

The mum-of-one said: “The most important thing is making HIV testing a normal part of medical care. If I hadn’t been tested I wouldn’t be sat here now. I’d be dead.

“Too many people are only being diagnosed when they are in hospital and seriously ill.”

Testing is as simple as a finger-prick blood test.

The quicker people are diagnosed, the better their chance of survival, and like Adrienne, they can control the condition through medication.

There are 253 people in East Lancs known to carry the virus.

Last month a Health Protection Agency report said the number of new HIV cases in the area fell by almost half, from 40 in 2009 to 26 in 2010. But Adrienne believes these figures are inaccurate. She said: “These statistics lose me and they confuse other people as well.

“I’m not seeing that cases are dropping, I’m seeing that more newly diagnosed people are coming to the group. We continue to grow and have around 60 members now.”

Adrienne also refutes the suggestion that people are more at risk of infection while travelling abroad.

She said: “It’s just as likely here on your own doorstep, maybe more so if sleeping with ‘Mr Respectable’ who has not been tested.”

Newly diagnosed people can chat to Adrienne before joining either weekly or monthly groups at Thrivine, which has a strict confidentiality policy.

She said: “The first thing somebody wants when they are diagnosed is to meet another positive person.

“Nobody else in the world knows what it feels like to get that diagnosis.”

To find out more, visit www.thrivine.org, www.hivine. com, or call 01254 56557.