HIV cases plummet after spike

There’s been a big drop in the number of Kiwis being diagnosed with HIV — something researchers say could be due to changes to how the disease is being treated.

A total of 197 people were diagnosed with HIV last year, down from the 243 reported in 2016, and the first recorded reduction since 2011.

But Dr Sue McAllister, leader of the Otago University-based Aids Epidemiology Group, said the figures released yesterday had to be put into context.

“While this decrease in the number of diagnoses is encouraging, it is too early to say whether this decline will be maintained.”

After 2016‘s notable spike — the highest number ever diagnosed in any one year since monitoring of the epidemic began in 1985 — last year’s numbers were now similar to the number of people diagnosed with HIV in the mid-2000s.

But the figure was still an increase on numbers in 2012 and 2013.

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) were the group most affected.

McAllister said there had been some changes to the management of people with HIV which may have assisted in preventing the disease.

HIV-infected individuals were now able to start treatment immediately on diagnosis, with the removal of the clinical threshold for receipt of subsidised anti-retroviral therapy.

There was also now availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent infection for individuals at high risk.