Kevin McKenna: Kent MP shares in Commons he’s HIV constructive

An MP has revealed he’s residing with HIV throughout a Home of Commons debate.

Kevin McKenna, Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP, grew to become the third MP to share his HIV standing as he spoke in a debate in Westminster Corridor on Thursday.

Mr McKenna mentioned visiting buddies with HIV in hospital as a younger man helped him to contemplate moving into his former profession as a nurse.

Encouraging individuals to “simply get examined”, he mentioned: “It’s just a bit scratch on the finger and there needs to be no stigma.”

The Labour MP, who was newly elected within the 2024 Normal Election, mentioned: “You will not go this illness on if you’re handled.

“You will not endure. And actually it is boring and mundane.”

Mr McKenna was the third MP to talk brazenly about his HIV standing following Lord Chris Smith in 2005 and former Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell Moyle in 2018.

In his Commons speech, he mentioned: “I’ve lived a very long time as an HIV constructive man.

“I’ve lived a very long time in my life beginning off with buddies taking tablets that did have fairly extreme unwanted effects, some unwanted effects that have been very disagreeable and led to them nonetheless affected by HIV after which AIDS.

“Now it is whittled down to 1 pill a day – and as I get in to my fifties it sits alongside my statins and my arthritis remedy.

“By the point I used to be correctly popping out within the early 90s, I met a number of buddies and lovers who had AIDS or HIV.

“I spent a variety of time going to hospitals and it was there that I realised that nursing can be one thing that suited me.”

His assertion in Westminster Corridor got here as a part of a debate on HIV Testing Week, which takes place from 10 to 16 February.

Richard Angell, chief government of Terrence Higgins Belief mentioned Mr McKenna’s assertion was “a vastly vital act however delivered as he would really like it to be handled – as simply one other long run situation.”

He mentioned: “Kevin talked to the change in his lifetime. He reveals that individuals residing with HIV can’t simply entry drugs which means they will stay a wholesome life and can’t go on the virus however they will go on to succeed and serve our nation.

“In the present day Kevin has delivered a physique blow to HIV stigma and can proceed to vary hearts and thoughts in the best way HIV is seen by most people.”