New Scientist website reveal new HIV infections in gay men have fallen by nearly a third since 2015 across England.
The drop may be due to people buying medicines such as PrEP online against mainstream medical advice.
A similar fall was reported in London by four sexual health clinics. These new results, which are preliminary figures from sexual health clinics in England for 2016 reveal the trend is happening across the country.
This data was presented at the recent HepHIV conference in Malta by Valerie Delpech from Public Health England who told New Scientist: “Provisional data suggests that HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men in England has fallen, although it is not possible to confirm this at a national level until all data for 2016 have been received.”
Until last year just over half of new UK HIV infections were in gay men, so ultimately, a fall in this group will have a big impact on the course of the epidemic.
One explanation is that the drop is down to people taking medicines that slash their chances of catching HIV, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP.
However, these drugs aren’t available on the NHS and cost around £400 a month when prescribed privately which results in many gay men buying online generic versions from pharmacies in India and elsewhere.
Official NHS advice is that it is dangerous to purchase medicines in this way because they could have the wrong active ingredient, no active ingredient or an incorrect dosage.
Many people continue to buy their generic drugs through a website called I Want PrEP Now, which works with NHS clinics to check the drugs are genuine. Doctors also provide the generics users with urine tests, to check the medicine isn’t causing kidney damage, as this is a possible side-effect.
Other explanations for the fall in rates, include wider testing and encouraging people to start taking HIV medicines as soon as they’re diagnosed. This makes them much less likely to pass on the infection because it cuts the amount of virus in their genital fluids.
Whether it’s PrEP or early treatment intervention that’s causing the fall it puts pressure on NHS England to move quickly to instigate their recently announced trial making PrEP available to 10,000 gay and straight people across the country.
Dr Michael Brady, Medical Director at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “After years of high rates of HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men, it is really exciting to see these indications of such a sharp drop in England.
“It is early days but this points towards what can be achieved when we utilise all the weapons in our arsenal against HIV transmission. This includes access to condoms, testing, PrEP and, crucially, diagnosing and treating people as early as possible so they can become uninfectious.
“This is extremely positive news for gay and bisexual men, who continue to be one of the groups most affected by HIV. However, it is no time for complacency and we must redouble our efforts to prevent HIV among other at-risk groups as well.
“If we can build on this remarkable progress with continued investment in HIV testing and prevention, including a long-term NHS funded PrEP programme for all those who are at risk, a world without HIV transmission could be within our grasp.”
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