Lambeth and Southwark receive £1m worth of HIV prevention pills
Two boroughs with the highest concentrations of HIV have been given almost £1million of prevention pills.
Lambeth and Southwark had 244 new HIV diagnoses in 2018 – more than five per cent of the number nationally, 4,453.
Lambeth is being awarded £549,728 worth, while Southwark is getting £421,013.
There are 3,392 people living with HIV in Lambeth and 2,622 in Southwark.
The capital has been given nearly half (46 per cent) of the overall budget for PrEP of £5.2m.
London has seen the biggest drop in new HIV diagnoses – a fall of 12 per cent in new cases between 2017 and 2018, and a 50 per cent drop among gay and bisexual men since 2015 – PrEP has been the missing piece of the puzzle for further progress.
Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity, has called this “an important day in the course of the HIV epidemic in the UK”.
The drug is highly effective at preventing HIV when taken as prescribed by GPs, and will be rolled out via sexual health clinics this month, following delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Terrence Higgins Trust hopes that PrEP will be made available across England as rapidly as possible.
This move follows a three-year capped trial and years of campaigning to make PrEP available for all who could benefit.
Pictured top: Lambeth Town Hall
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