Support: Blears

MPs have called on the government to launch a new safe sex awareness campaign and protect health budgets for HIV and Aids.

During a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday, organised by the Labour MP Gavin Strang, backbenchers said plans to mainstream HIV and Aids treatment into the NHS should be delayed.

They raised fears that those with HIV/Aids could lose vital care and support during the transitional phase.

With the number of new HIV/Aids cases at a 10-year high, Strang called on the government to launch another safe sex information campaign to combat the rising number of HIV infections. Last year Scotland saw the highest number of HIV infection levels ever, he told MPs.

"People becoming sexually active would not have been influenced by the campaign from the '80s," he warned.

Strang added that improvements in HIV treatment, such as combination therapy had led to complacency, particularly among young people. "People vulnerable to HIV and Aids have their whole lives in front of them," he said.

Neil Gerrard, the chairman of the all-party committee on HIV and Aids backed the government's strategy for countering the spread of the virus but called on the minister for health to continue ring fencing funding for at least a year. Changing to mainstreaming at a time when health service structures where in a state of flux was bound to cause problems, he said.

Gerrard said he was glad the government now actually had a strategy in place but warned all of government had a part to play.

"HIV is much, much, more than a medical issue," he said saying the employment, education and other government departments should play their part.

"I don't think when you look through the strategy...there are few people that would say there are points in here that they fundamentally disagree with," he said.

The Conservative health spokesman, Simon Burns, said the issue of HIV/Aids had slipped down the agenda. Prejudice about the disease was still high among the general public, he said. Members only had to read their mail to see level of ignorance about HIV, he said, adding everyone should help to combat it.

"It is an area where all of us have an important role to play," he said. "I believe the media have an important role to play."

Burns called for greater education on the issue but said his party's opposition to the repeal of Section 28 did not mean the Conservatives could not further the debate on HIV.

"In all sincerity a difference on an issue does not mean prejudice," he said.

Burns claimed many young people, ignorant of the risks they were taking by having unprotected sex, were playing "Russian roulette with their lives".

"The extent of the ignorance and complacency is staggering," Burns said. "We have slipped back, to my mind, in recent years. The government must act and act quickly".

Health minister Hazel Blears noted there was a measure of cross-party support for the government's strategy. "Despite the delay I am very pleased the strategy has had a broad welcome from people out there in the field," the minister said.

She repeated the government's commitment to repeal Section 28 but warned the key problem would be finding parliamentary time to hold the debate.

Blears reassured MPs that a range of promotional activities were underway to raise awareness of the safe sex message.

"This clearly one of the most fundamental parts of the strategy. There are in fact a number of contracts in place to target those most at risk," she said. "There's already a lot of health promotion work going on."

On ring-fencing money, Blears pledged that funding for HIV and AIDS would not be affected.

"I think I can assure honourable members that there is a real determination on the part of the government that when the money does go into the health framework it will continue to be monitored," she said.

Earlier in the debate, the SNP MP Michael Weir, said that it was vital that those with HIV/Aids continued to practice safe sex. He was speaking as evidence suggested that as many as four in 10 young people with HIV continued to engage in sex without making use of condoms.