NHS 'Failing' Those At Risk Of HIV

The NHS has been accused of "failing" to help those most at risk of contracting HIV.

The National Aids Trust has said the NHS is taking too long to provide a "revolutionary" pill which has been shown to dramatically reduce the chances of HIV infection.

The charity says it is now taking the matter to judicial review in an effort to push the health service into commissioning the drugs.

"We are still waiting for the NHS to embrace this potentially revolutionary intervention," says National Aids Trust chief executive Deborah Gold.

"Faced with this impasse, NAT has no choice but to take the matter before a court for judicial review. The public interest in resolving this is too great to ignore it."
The health system is "failing to look at the bigger picture," she added.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication is a single pill, taken once daily, designed to prevent HIV negative people from becoming infected.

When taken consistently, it has been found to have reduced the risk of HIV infection in people who are at high risk by more than 90%.

According to Ms Gold, the effectiveness of the PrEP drug has been known for more than five years.

She said the delays make NHS England appear discriminatory, particularly towards gay men and people from black African communities who are at high risk of contracting HIV.

In March, NHS England ruled that the treatment was a preventive service and was therefore not its responsibility. It found instead that local councils are in charge of funding preventive health services.

NHS England agreed to a re-evaluated that finding after the National Aids Trust launched a legal challenge, however that was rejected last month and NHS England returned to their original decision not to commission the drug.

A spokesman for NHS England said: "We have listened carefully to stakeholders, and will continue to work with Public Health England and other partners on reducing HIV transmissions, but our external legal advice is clear that NHS England does not have the legal power to commission PrEP."

An estimated two million people around the world became newly infected with HIV in 2014 alone, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS.

Some 36.9 million people were already living with HIV, while another 1.2 million died of HIV-related causes.

Source: Sky news