Government plans devastating cuts to funding for the national HIV prevention programme in England.
Proposals will see funding halved for the year commencing April 2015 and there is as yet no commitment to fund further years of the programme.
The current programme, HIV Prevention England (HPE), is coordinated by Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and is focussed on the needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) and black African men and women.
Dr Rosemary Gillespie, Chief Executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “This is not the right time for the Government to pare back spending on HIV prevention. In recent years, we have made good progress in driving down rates of undiagnosed and late-diagnosed HIV. However, tens of thousands of people with HIV across England are still undiagnosed and at increased risk of passing the virus on unwittingly. We have not yet reached the tipping point in our fight against the epidemic, and halving government spending on HIV prevention now would be a regressive step that risks undermining the headway we have made.”
The £1.2million allocated for 2015/16 is equivalent to less than £1 for each person targeted by the programme.
Less than a month ago, Public Health England released data showing that rates of HIV transmission show no signs of decline while last year saw 6,000 new HIV diagnoses in the UK, including the highest ever number of diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.
One in four people living with HIV remain undiagnosed. National Aids Trust’s (NAT) recent poll, commissioned from Ipsos MORI, showed that only two thirds of British adults can correctly identify the three main routes for HIV transmission and an increasing number think you can get HIV through impossible routes, such as kissing and sneezing.
This decision is in direct contradiction to Simon Stevens’ NHS Five Year Forward View, released in October and welcomed by all main political parties, in which he said: “…the future health of millions of children, the sustainability of the NHS, and the economic prosperity of Britain all now depend on a radical upgrade in prevention and public health. Twelve years ago Derek Wanless’ health review warned that unless the country took prevention seriously we would be faced with a sharply rising burden of avoidable illness. That warning has not been heeded – and the NHS is on the hook for the consequences”.
The cuts will only affect HIV prevention work in England, not Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland.
Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “This is completely unacceptable. The UK could play a pivotal role in making new HIV infections a thing of the past – but these proposals seriously jeopardise all the work that’s been done to date and risk turning the clock back on the fight against HIV and Aids.
“Brighton and Hove still has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the country, with too many people still deterred from being tested by fear of being stigmatised and by the fear of the consequences of a positive diagnosis.
“We urgently need to do much more to prevent lives being lost to HIV/AIDS, and to improve education and awareness. These funding cuts would risk all that – it’s breathtakingly irresponsible.”
NAT’s activist network are working to defend the national HIV prevention funding.
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Simon Kirby MP for Brighton Kemptown & Peaehaven, said: “As the Vice-Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV/AIDS I was very concerned to read the reports of a cut in HIV prevention funding. That is why I immediately made a number of representations to Ministers at the Department of Health to stress the importance of HIV prevention in the continued fight against HIV/AIDS.
“I am delighted that following my lobbying efforts, the Minister for Public Health has confirmed that the Government is protecting funding for HIV prevention and will not be reduced.”