UK's HIV transmission continues to fall

HIV transmission in the UK has continued to fall, and sustaining prevention efforts have contributed to such improvement, according to a report released on Thursday by Public Health England (PHE).

The goal of eliminating HIV transmission by 2030 depends upon sustaining prevention efforts and further expanding them to reach all at risk, PHE said.

The latest figures showed that significant drop in HIV transmission could be seen among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men from an estimated 2,300 transmissions in 2014 to 800 in 2018, a decrease of 73 percent.

Despite HIV testing having greatly increased over the past decade, an estimated 7,500 people were living with HIV and were unaware of this in 2018, and two in five of those diagnosed in 2018 were diagnosed at a late stage, according to the report.

"Testing is a key part of the UK's success, if you have HIV you can benefit from life-saving treatments that also prevent further transmission of the virus," said Dr. Noel Gill, head of STIs and HIV at PHE.

"Certain groups of people are at higher HIV risk and are advised to have regular tests, including men and women who have had unprotected sex with new or casual partners from countries where HIV is common, who should test every year, and men who have sex with men," said Gill.

The most common way of getting HIV in the UK is through unprotected sexual contact with a person unaware of their HIV infection, according to the PHE.