Imagine you've just discovered you're pregnant. Ecstatic, you make an appointment at your nearest hospital, taking a series of tests to ensure you and your baby are happy and healthy. A few weeks later, the results are back. You are HIV positive.

According to Dr Jane Anderson, this is how a growing number of women in the UK are finding out they are infected with the AIDS virus. "The way HIV is frequently diagnosed in the UK is through pregnant women being recommended the test, as we can prevent babies being infected if we know that the mother is HIV positive," she confirms.

Approximately 80,000 people in the UK are currently infected with HIV (though one third of these do not know it) and this is increasing, with more than 7,600 people diagnosed last year. What is a lesser known fact is that, over the last five to ten years, more women than men have been diagnosed world-wide. HIV has become a disease of predominantly heterosexual women.

Anderson knows the statistics only too well. She has worked in the area of sexual health for the past 17 years - full time at St Bartholomew's (Barts) hospital in the City of London for 14 years (working one day a week at Homerton hospital in Hackney) until she was appointed to a full time post at Homerton as a Consultant in 2004, focusing on HIV and developing a new research centre for the study of sexual health and HIV.

"If we intervene early, we can stop people getting sick. But there's still this fear that when you are HIV positive, you die. Well, that's not the case here, not in the UK and not on our watch"

Currently, 65 per cent of the HIV patients Anderson treats are women, compared to 30 per cent across the rest of the UK. The majority of these are from ethnic minority communities - African and Caribbean - who make up a large part of the distinctly impoverished borough of Hackney.

HIV has a particularly bad stigma in these communities. If diagnosed, at best, it is not spoken about. At worst, it may be linked to domestic violence. "It can be very difficult for these people to have an open conversation between friends and family about their situation. Often, they live quite constrained and secret lives, and are very reluctant to address the issues. For some, their visits to us are often the only proper discussions they have about what is happening to them."

Patients who delay coming forward with the infection sometimes leave it too late for help. "It's particularly poignant because we know that if we intervene early, we can stop people getting sick. But there's still this fear that when you are HIV positive, you will die. Well, that's not the case here, I tell my patients. Not in the UK and not on our watch."

But it's not only people with HIV who are in denial or lacking in awareness insists Anderson, it is happening right across the UK. "The two major views about HIV here are firstly that it happens in Africa and secondly there is no need to worry because there are drugs for it now. Even the political agenda, the Government is extremely proactive about making sure resources go to other parts of the world, but when you try to get them focused on this country and this problem, it's very murky."

Anderson is looking to bring about change both on a local and large scale. To do this, she has collated research data and evidence, the only way to impact policy makers and funders.

She has just concluded a study with City University, one of the biggest of its kind in the UK involving 1,700 people who attended HIV centres across north east London, including 700 who were of African origin. This will give an insight into how HIV impacts the lives and sexual behaviours of those diagnosed with the virus. She's also collaborated on three more studies with Professor Lesley Doyal, a social scientist at Bristol University, on the experiences of men and women coming from African backgrounds and living with HIV in the UK.

Anderson is also working on a study with Dr Graham Bothamley who leads the TB diagnosis team at Homerton. North east London has one of the highest levels of TB in the UK, and TB and HIV feed off each other explains Anderson.

"I can write a prescription for thousands of pounds worth of drugs for a woman who may not able to feed her children. Many are under a lot of social pressure and leading quite difficult lives, but they are not 'victims'. There's a huge amount of strength and resilience within them"

On a large scale, Anderson would like to see universal access to free HIV care - something the government has signed up to for 2010. Until then, people with failed asylum claims and undocumented migrants are ineligible for free care for HIV infection on the NHS. The result, according to Anderson, risks an increased spread of HIV and pressure on the emergency system which is free to everyone in the UK. "If you leave HIV untreated, you just keep having emergencies. This, together with a week in intensive care, is a great deal more expensive than treating people."

On a local scale, Anderson is developing a leading research unit at Homerton that provides 'the sort of clinical care that is relevant and appropriate for the people here'.

"Many are under a lot of social pressure and leading quite difficult lives, but they are not 'victims'. There's a huge amount of strength and resilience within them. We want to expand our service to relieve some of these pressures, a service that's woman and family-friendly which works with the voluntary sector and peer support services for maximum benefit. "

Of course, all this comes at a cost. £5.3m for a building that houses the medical and research facilities in one place. £1.3m has already been pledged by the NHS Trust. "We have to match these funds and raise the rest to ensure we make this a one-stop-shop for the treatment of HIV and to build the research centre. Having everything in one place means that the research is embedded in the clinical practise because, unless we learn from what we do, we will never move forward."