HIV Rates Down by Almost 1/3 in UK

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How will breeders make fun of us now? Hmmm?

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In the year beginning October 2015, HIV diagnoses fell by 32% compared with October 2014 to September 2015 among men who have sex with men (MSM) attending five of the biggest London sexual health clinics.
The reasons for the fall are thought to be the big step up in testing, so that gay men at high risk because their partner has HIV would be offered testing every three months, andoffering immediate antiretroviral drug treatment to those who test positive, which suppresses the virus.

Valerie Delpech, head of HIV surveillance for Public Health England, said the five big clinics had seen a substantial fall in the number of men becoming infected with HIV and that the success could be replicated across the country and beyond.

“Basically we are witnessing a phenomenal experiment. We are observing it. What we are seeing is the first downturn of the HIV epidemic in gay men,” said Delpech.

There was a drop in infections among gay and bisexual men of 17% in England as a whole and a drop of 25% in London. The five clinics that had a 32% drop in new diagnoses, from 880 to 595, had stepped up testing to the point that they were responsible for 41% of all the tests carried out in MSM in England over the year, and were quicker than others to get those who tested positive on treatment.

Sheena McCormack of the UK Medical Research Council and University College London – who coordinated the Proud study in 2014, which showed an 86% fall in new infections among MSM taking the drugs – believes the drop in new diagnoses in the second half of 2015 through 2016 fits the PrEP timeline well, suggesting it may play a substantial role.