People at higher risk of HIV can now order a free home sampling test kit online. The announcement came as Public Health England (PHE) reported the largest annual number of new HIV cases among men who have sex with men (MSM).

In 2014, 1.9 per 1,000 people aged 15 years and over had HIV, which works out at about one person in 526. PHE also estimates that one in 20 MSM aged 15-44 years lives with HIV and that 103,700 people lived with HIV in 2014, of which about 17 per cent (18,100) were unaware that they were HIV positive.

About 6,500 MSM and 3,900 men and women from black African communities were unaware that they were HIV positive. In addition, 3,360 MSM were newly diagnosed with HIV during 2014, which PHE says is “the largest number ever recorded”. Forty per cent of people are diagnosed at a late stage of HIV infection, which undermines the potential benefits offered by highly active antiretroviral therapy.