Dramatic drop in new cases of HIV among MSM in England

Valerie Delpech of Public Health England presented data regarding new HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) at the HepHIV conference in Malta.

According to her, the rate of new HIV infections among gay men has dropped by a third in England.

The data comes from preliminary figures from sexual health clinics all across England.

“Provisional data suggests that HIV diagnoses among gay and bisexual men in England have fallen, although it is not possible to confirm this at a national level until all data for 2016 have been received,” Delpech stated.

The reason for this dramatic fall in new cases of HIV might be that more and more people are taking pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP. A drug Truvada, using for PrEP, a once -a-day pill regimen decreases your chances of acquiring the virus by more than 90%.

However, PrEP is not yet available on the NHS and costs around £400 a month if prescribed privately.

So growing numbers of gay men are buying generic versions from online pharmacies in India and elsewhere and the official position of NHS is that this is not safe.

“Medicines purchased in this way could have the wrong active ingredient, no active ingredient, or an incorrect dosage,” says a spokesperson for the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.