Keir Starmer has said the Government’s goal of ending new HIV transmissions by 2030 is within reach as Wes Streeting unveils a new action plan on World AIDS day
Labour’s goal of ending new HIV transmissions by the end of the decade is within reach, Keir Starmer has said.
Today(MON) the Government will unveil an action plan on World Aids Day with £170million pledged to ramp up testing and support. The PM said: “I promised to end HIV transmissions in England by 2030 and we are making this a reality thanks to our action plan, with a groundbreaking new HIV prevention programme, at home tests made available through the NHS app, and delivering opt out testing in emergency departments.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who will announce the plan, said: “HIV treatment has been transformed. Today, people living with HIV can enjoy full, healthy lives – and can’t pass the virus on to others.
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“That’s remarkable progress. But we can go further. Ending new HIV transmissions by 2030 is ambitious – and this government is determined to make it happen.”
Speaking to the Mirror one person living with HIV said: “I would sooner have HIV than diabetes,” and stressed just how far science had come in tackling the virus. Alan, 49, a happily married straight man living with HIV, has challenged the ongoing stigma surrounding HIV and said: ”You take one pill a day, that’s it.”
Today individuals living in the UK with HIV have access to effective medication that allows for their viral load – the amount of HIV replicating in the body – to become undetectable. People with undetectable viral loads are untransmittable meaning their blood and bodily fluids can not transfer HIV onto any sexual partners.
The action plan is set to re-engage people who have left HIV care, bringing them back to lifesaving treatment. It is also aimed at tackling the stigma surrounding HIV, with opt-out testing at A&Es during routine blood tests.
The testing programme will be delivered in areas with the highest rates, including London and Manchester. This is expected to reach thousands of people with undiagnosed infections who might never otherwise visit a sexual health clinic, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
Yesterday(SUN) the Government announced a £5 million trial that will see home HIV testing kits ordered at the touch of a button through the NHS App.
Alan has called for more straight men to be aware about HIV. Many still perceive the virus to be a health issue that primarily effects gay men however around one in five men who are diagnosed with HIV are straight men.
He said: “I remember when HIV hit the headlines and, you know, everyone was going to die. Um, but it was also very much a gay disease. Um, and as a heterosexual young man, it was like, well, it doesn’t affect me, so I ignored it.”
Claire, 43, a mother of three, said: “My friends were all fantastic. And to be fair, every relationship that I have ever tried to have has nobody has said, ‘No, I’m not getting involved with you because you’ve got HIV’. So, I’m very, very fortunate.”
Claire said: “The only negative experiences I have had have all been from health care professionals. Every single one.
“The stigma around it is completely non-applicable to somebody like myself where yes, I’ve got it, but I can’t transmit it even.
“You take your tablets, it’s untransmittable to a partner, to a baby, to people. I could bleed out in the middle of the shopping street and I can’t give it to anybody.”
Claire added: “There is a huge lack of information and those prejudices carry through. It’s just a lack of education that people still think it’s a transmittable life-ending disease and it’s not.”
And she stated: “It’s very much you’re diagnosed and then your life carries on as normal. I always say that I would sooner have HIV than diabetes.”
Eugene Lynch, Director of Delivery at Terren Higgins Trust, told The Mirror: “If we can be the first country to end the onward transmission of HIV, we can prove that it’s possible.”
“We can also set the standard to say this is now a political decision whether or not we end it. It’s not like scientific. It’s not a theory. We’ve proved it’s possible.”
He added: “Now it’s a political decision whether it’s done everywhere. I think that’s a really important precedent to set that you know proving that you can actually do it.”
