A London-based charity has opened an HIV testing clinic in a black church in New Cross to help combat the disease among African people in the UK. 

ActionPlus Foundation believes Africans with HIV living in the UK are often afraid to be tested because they fear the social shame and even being thrown out of their church. 

The charity’s proactive programme aims to work closely with church leaders at Living Flames Baptist Church in Cottesbrooke Street, and offer medical testing in church-based clinics.

Recent Health Protection Agency figures show that 2.8 people per 1000 aged from 15 to 59 have HIV in the UK. But the rate is much higher for black Africans at 56 people per 1000.

ActionPlus founder, Pentecostal minister Rev Fred Annin, said: "It shouldn’t be taboo to discuss it in churches. It’s a medical condition and people need medical help. Prayer cannot bring our health back when we ignore medicine."