New data published by Public Health England reports a 50% fall in the rate of new HIV infections among gay men in Brighton & Hove.
At the end of 2016, five HIV clinics in London reported they had seen a significant reduction (by 40% or more) in new diagnoses of HIV in the previous year (2015). Clinicians in Brighton have recently analysed their own local data over a longer period of time.
While they report much variation in local figures from month to month, over the last four years Brighton has in fact seen a decline from an average of six new diagnoses per month just over four years ago to around three per month by May of this year. The figures have only just been analysed and clinicians are in the process of performing further analyses in order to understand more about the reasons for the decline.
Duncan Churchill, Consultant in HIV Medicine at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We believe that there are several reasons for the reduction in HIV incidence locally (and elsewhere). These include increased HIV testing, particularly in high risk men who have sex with men; rapid initiation of antiretroviral treatment in people who do test HIV positive (meaning that they very soon become incapable of transmitting HIV to anyone else), and possibly a contribution from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This latter intervention is of course not available routinely on the NHS, but we do have around 120 individuals who have accessed PrEP locally in the PROUD and DISCOVER studies, and we support/monitor a number of others who purchase their own PrEP.”
Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men continue to account for half of all people living with HIV in England and remain the group most at risk of acquiring HIV infection.
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