Sir - N Taylor avers that there has been “little factual rebuttal of Mr Farage’s observations” regarding the impact of treating HIV patients on the NHS during the first televised leaders’ debate.

Farage said that there had been 7,000 diagnoses of HIV in the last year, with 60% of those for non-British nationals and that it cost £25,000 per year to treat a patient. Those statistics have been repeatedly demonstrated to be somewhat of an exaggeration. It is a truism that there are lies, damned lies, and then statistics.

Fact: In 2013, the latest year for which statistics are available there were 6,000 diagnoses, not 7,000. Farage exaggerated.

Fact: The NHS, at that time, did not record nationality however 44.8% of those patients diagnosed were born abroad, of course being born abroad does not preclude against British citizenship. Once again, Farage exaggerated.

Fact: 74% of the patients in a same sex relationship contracted HIV in the UK; the equivalent figure amongst heterosexual patients is 57%. One could infer from Farage’s statements that he were alleging that a large number of infected immigrants were seeking treatment.

Finally, the Terence Higgins Trust state that the average annual cost of treating someone with HIV is somewhere between £8,000 and £12,000. Is it any wonder then that there are those of us who treat UKIP politicians with the same contempt we treat all other politicians.

As for tuberculosis, the NHS reported that there were 8,751 cases in 2012 and have recently announced an £11.5M project to completely eradicate tuberculosis from the UK.

N Taylor can of course verify the statistics for himself using a far more reliable source than Farage…Public Health England.

It is a far better British characteristic to be helpful and supportive of others less well off than ourselves than to blame immigrants for, say, traffic congestion.

Robyn Norfolk

Worcester