Achi news desk-
Coming out as gay in the 1990s immediately puts you in a high risk category for HIV. Many friends lived in fear of his capture and it was seen as a death sentence. I had two friends who died of AIDS and the waste of their young lives still angers me over 20 years later.
Thankfully, things have improved. With advances in science, society becomes more accepting and understanding expands; we have come a long way from where we were and the Government’s commitment to have zero new cases by 2030. However, more needs to be done to achieve this.
I have been calling for a four-pronged approach which focuses on improving sex education, expanding opt-out testing, better availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and finding the 13,000 people with HIV who are being missed to care
Sex education is crucial. Young people think about sex, have sex and experiment with sex. That’s a fact. Rather than turning a blind eye to this and pretending it doesn’t happen, we must make sure our young people understand how to have safe sex and that they get enough information. With regard to HIV specifically, comprehensive sex education in schools and community outreach programs can empower people with the knowledge they need to protect themselves and others from HIV transmission. These initiatives should focus not only on biological factors but also on addressing the stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV, which often prevents people from seeking testing and treatment.
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Opt-out testing has already helped identify more than 3,000 people with HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in just 16 months. This means that those 3,000 people will be able to receive treatment and stop the spread. I welcome that the Government has expanded those tests to 47 other emergency rooms, so that we can find even more people. I strongly believe that the success of opt-out testing to date should continue to be expanded as it has been central to the detection, treatment and prevention of the spread of these STDs.
On PrEP, the amazing introduction has seen so many people in high risk groups able to enjoy sex without worrying about contracting HIV. According to the latest statistics from 2022, 86,324 people are using PrEP. That figure is undoubtedly greater now and has been extremely successful in protecting people from contracting HIV. However, we need to see an increase in the push for PrEP. I support the great work done by the Terrence Higgins Trust to push for wider access to PrEP. At the moment, it’s only available in Sexual Health Centers – a great start, but we need to see it available in pharmacies. This may require some change in systems that currently have systems that see a stark difference in cost between how much a pharmacy can buy PrEP for compared to the NHS. The reimbursement price for PrEP in the Drug Tariff, which pharmacies would have to pay, is £355.73 for a 30-day course. The centrally purchased price when people access sexual health clinics is £7 (which is paid centrally by NHSE). We need to change this system which would mean that more people, many who have been on PrEP continuously for some time, would be able to access this preventive method more easily.
We must continue to change the perceptions held by many who can be affected by HIV. It wasn’t just the ‘gay disease’ that was talked about in the 80s; it can affect anyone. With this in mind, it is therefore crucial that we ensure that opt-out tests are expanded, sex education and more comprehensive learning that they could benefit from PrEP. Many women in the UK are not offered information or testing about HIV due to gender bias and assumptions placed on women’s risk. While HIV diagnoses declined in white gay and bi men, cases in heterosexual women rose 26% from 447 in 2021 to 564 in 2022. In terms of PrEP only 36% of women identified as needing started or continued PrEP in 2022 Among men who have sex with men, the proportion was 74%. Once again, statistics like this bring home the fact that anyone can be affected and when we look at identifying the 13,000 HIV positive people who were lost to care; we must be clear that many of the 13,000 are not gay men – they could be anyone.
So, the fight against HIV is well fought but it is not over yet. We need a multifaceted approach that many have been campaigning for to see the risks reduced. This will take education, medicine and understanding. We have come so far, and we must not turn our backs on anyone who is affected or could be affected.
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