HIV: A WAR WE’RE WINNING
How better management and sexual health education is reducing the number of new diagnoses
THE number of people newly diagnosed with HIV is at a 14 year low.
Some 5,164 people in the UK were diagnosed with the virus in 2016 the latest year for which data is available - according to Public Health England.
While that’s still more than 14 diagnoses a day, the figure is the lowest it has been since 2002. That year, 6,245 people were diagnosed with HIV - or 17 a day.
However, while experts have
welcomed the findings, there are fears that complacency could reverse the progress that has been made. HIV damages cells in the immune system, meaning the body is less able to fight everyday infections and diseases. It is most commonly passed on through unprotected sexual activity or shared needles, but it can also be passed from mother to baby or through contaminated blood. There were 2,810 men in 2016 who developed HIV through unprotected sex with other men. A further 1,140 women caught the virus through sex with a man,
while 970 men acquired it through sex with a woman.
Therewere131peoplewhocontracted HIV from shared needles and 113 in other ways, including pregnancy.
While HIV cannot be cured because it mutates too quickly, it is no longer a death sentence and can be managed using antiretroviral medications.
These work by stopping the virus replicating in the body, allowing the immune system to repair itself and prevent further damage.
The Terrence Higgins Trust is a HIV
and sexual health charity.
Debbie Laycock, head of policy and engagement, said: “We have the tools we need to end the HIV epidemic in the UK, and the biggest drop in new diagnoses since the start of the epidemic backs that up. “It’s estimated that around 12 per cent of people with HIV in the UK remain undiagnosed, which is something we really need to tackle. “As well as being bad for your overall health, someone with undiagnosed HIV is much more likely to unwittingly pass on the virus to others. “Complacency has the potential to reverse the
progress that’s been made so we must maintain momentum to end new transmissions in the UK.
“And late diagnoses – which means the person is diagnosed after damage to the immune system has already begun – remain too high, with 42 per cent of people in 2016 being diagnosed late.”
If HIV goes undetected and unmanaged the virus will continue lowering the numbers of cells in the immune system until a person has very few at all. They will then be unable to defend themselves from the most minor of infections.
This is called Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - more commonly known as AIDS.
There were 278 people in 2016 diagnosed with AIDS at the time of their HIV diagnosis.