{"id":29349,"date":"2015-12-01T12:10:27","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T12:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=29349"},"modified":"2016-02-05T19:31:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T19:31:56","slug":"hiv-rates-still-increasing-in-gay-men-2015-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/29349","title":{"rendered":"HIV rates still increasing in gay men: 2015 report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-29444\" src=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/HIV-in-the-UK-2015-repor-cover-300x248.png\" alt=\"HIV in the UK 2015 repor cover\" width=\"200\" height=\"165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/HIV-in-the-UK-2015-repor-cover-300x248.png 300w, https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/HIV-in-the-UK-2015-repor-cover-1024x847.png 1024w, https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/HIV-in-the-UK-2015-repor-cover-363x300.png 363w, https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/HIV-in-the-UK-2015-repor-cover.png 1787w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Simon Collins, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The 2015 report from Public Health England (PHE) on new HIV diagnosis, together with treatment and care based on data from 2014 was published in October.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As with previous years the report provided sober reading.<\/p>\n<p>Key findings from the 2014 data include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New diagnosis increased to 6151 in 2014 from 6000 in 2013.<\/li>\n<li>Gay men are disproportionally affected, with increased to 3360 in 2014 from 3259 in 2013.<\/li>\n<li>New diagnoses acquired through heterosexual sex has declined (2,490 in 2014), largely due to a reduction in diagnoses among black African men and women (1,044 in 2014).<\/li>\n<li>Approximately 40% of diagnoses in 2014 were in late stage HIV, defined as a CD4 count below 350 cells\/mm3. The report notes that this &#8220;remains stubbornly and unacceptably high&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>613 HIV positive people died, mostly with late diagnoses as a factor.<\/li>\n<li>There are now 85,489 people diagnosed with HIV in the UK accessing care (compared to 81,500 in 2013). One in 6 are older than 55.<\/li>\n<li>Of people in care, 90% are on ART, with 95% of those on ART having an undetectable viral load.<\/li>\n<li>The report notes that even before the 2015 changes in WHO and BHIVA guidelines to recommend ART at CD4 counts &gt;500 cells\/mm<sup>3<\/sup>, 26% of people started ART while their CD4 count was this high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Comment<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The results show a failure for HIV prevention programmes &#8211; even though absolute increases in diagnoses are small and might reflect increased uptake of testing rather than new infections.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We should expect effective programmes to be reducing HIV rates, especially given the wider use of earlier ART and some availability of PrEP (in the PROUD study and perhaps even off-label use).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Given the proven clinical and prevention benefits of earlier treatment, it is unacceptable that commissioners insist that ART is currently only commissioned for treatment at a CD4 count &lt;350 cells\/mm<sup>3<\/sup>, and that the timeline for this policy to be changed will not be until 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>In the meantime, this anomally can be easily overcome by prescribing ART to reduce the risk of HIV transmission \u2013 which is commissioned irrespective of CD4 count.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>Public Health England. HIV New Diagnoses, Treatment and Care in the UK 2015 report. (October 2015).<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/hiv-in-the-united-kingdom\">https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/hiv-in-the-united-kingdom<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/469405\/HIV_new_diagnoses_treatment_and_care_2015_report20102015.pdf\">https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/469405\/HIV_new_diagnoses_treatment_and_care_2015_report20102015.pdf<\/a>\u00a0(PDF)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latest UK data showing increased diangoses in gay men provide important context for the next threee article on PrEP&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transmission-and-prevention","category-other-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}