History

Early Government media campaigns were successful in raising public awareness about HIV. The measures taken by UK governments in the 1980s, including needle exchanges, condom education and harm reduction programmes, alongside strong efforts by the UK’s gay communities made sure that the UK had far lower rates of HIV than some of our European neighbours.

For people living with HIV in the UK, the development of effective anti-HIV drugs means they can stay healthier for longer, and the UK government has made public commitments to tackling HIV in developing countries.

However, since the mid-1990s public and political complacency has grown about the risks of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the UK. Partly because of this the number of new cases of HIV being diagnosed began to rise. Today, gay men continue to be most at risk from HIV, but the UK is also now very much a part of the global epidemic and people from areas like sub-Saharan Africa where HIV is very common are also badly affected.

There have been 7,734 new HIV diagnoses reported for 2007, which was just about double the number reported for 2000 (3,875).

Who is most affected?

The two groups most affected in the UK are men who have sex with men (MSM) and migrants from regions of the world where HIV is common, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

Approximately 3,160 men who have sex with men were diagnosed in 2007, the highest number since the epidemic began. Eighty two percent of these men probably acquired HIV in the UK.

But the majority of people actually diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 2007 (55%) had been infected through heterosexual sex, and many were of African origin.

Because of the ways that HIV can be transmitted, another group that faces significant risk of contracting HIV is injecting drug users who share equipment. It is also possible for the virus to be passed from mother to baby during pregnancy but improvements to antenatal HIV testing and treatments make this increasingly rare. In the past some people also got HIV through blood products but in the UK this is now extremely rare as well.

Geography

Just under half (48%) of all people diagnosed with HIV in the UK live in London, as do 41% of the people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2007. This proportion used to be much higher, but people with HIV are now living across all areas of the UK and particularly in major towns and in North West England.

In the last ten years, the biggest increases in people living with diagnosed HIV have been in the East of England, the East Midlands and South central coast.

Late diagnosis

If someone is diagnosed a long time after they’ve been infected with HIV, it’s more likely that the virus will have already seriously damaged their immune system. Late diagnosis is one of the biggest contributing factors to illness and death for people with HIV. It’s very important that HIV is diagnosed early, so people can start treatment if they need to and look after their health. In 2007, an estimated  31% of adults (2,345) with HIV were diagnosed late.