Stephen Fry

In the early 1980s little was known about AIDS or how to treat it but in the UK we were all warned of its dangers in the “Don’t Die of Ignorance” campaigns.  Twenty years and 25 million deaths later however we are told that we’re “losing the fight against AIDS” with infections rising - particularly amongst 3 groups: the young, black African communities, and heterosexuals – in fact the number of new infections amongst straight people now outweighs those in the homosexual community.

Stephen has filmed a two-part documentary that tackles the largely forgotten world of HIV/AIDS. He goes on a personal journey and explores the situation today to find out why, despite the horrific figures - over 40 million worldwide and 70,000 in the UK now live with the virus - HIV/AIDS has fallen off the radar. 

Over a third of those infected do not know they carry the virus even though HIV tests take just 15 minutes - Stephen asks whether the availability of effective medication and single-pill therapies has resulted in complacency.

In this interview I ask him if he feels that no one cares about HIV anymore, if there should be a review of the blood service and the issues surrounding governments who feel that sexual health services are not a priority.

Download Ama's interview as a Podcast 
 

The documentary will be showing on BBC2

Programme one - Tuesday 2 October at 9pm on BBC Two