The fight against HIV in London must be intensified if the city is to achieve its goal of eliminating new transmissions by the close of the decade, warned the health advisor to the mayor.
Professor Kevin Fenton, serving as Sir Sadiq Khan’s official health consultant, informed the London Assembly that there is a pressing need to enhance and expand testing and treatment services for the virus.
While the number of new HIV diagnoses has nearly halved over the past eight years, Professor Fenton noted that this trend could complicate efforts to identify individuals who are newly diagnosed or living with HIV.
Addressing the Assembly’s health committee during their investigation into the HIV epidemic in London, he pointed out the emergence of new transmission patterns.
This cautionary message follows the mayor’s endorsement of the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities Ending the HIV Epidemic in 2018, with a commitment for the capital to see no new HIV cases, preventable deaths, or stigma by 2030.
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, recent statistics indicate that 980 individuals were newly diagnosed with HIV in London in 2023, comprising 691 men and 288 women. This figure is significantly lower than the 1,977 diagnoses recorded in 2015.
In addition, 563 individuals in London were confirmed to have HIV in 2023 after being diagnosed abroad, which is similar to the number from 2015.
Professor Fenton acknowledged that the past 40 years have witnessed “remarkable” progress in prevention, diagnosis, and support for HIV. However, he cautioned that fully eliminating transmission will pose significant challenges for various reasons.
“As new infections decrease, we can anticipate that those who do contract HIV may lead more complex lives,” he stated.
“They might engage in higher-risk behaviors, struggle to connect with current treatment and care services, and face social and structural barriers to transmission, such as poverty and insecure immigration status.”
He emphasized that the strategies that have brought improvements thus far may not suffice to reach the 2030 objectives.
To further reduce transmission, he suggested enhancing testing efforts and increasing access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication that helps prevent HIV infection.
He also mentioned that migration trends have played a role in the changing prevalence of HIV across different communities in London.
“The recent uptick in infections related to heterosexual intercourse, particularly among Black individuals from high-prevalence sub-Saharan African countries, has been notable,” he explained.
Professor Fenton remarked that health advisors attribute this increase to migration to the UK, but he reassured that “those diagnosed within the past year have shown evidence of effective treatment and viral suppression, thus posing a low risk of transmitting the virus to others.”
